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THE    CHRISTIAN    MINISTRY 
AND    THE    SOCIAL    ORDER 


Cfje  Social  #rtier 


LECTURES  DELIVERED  IN  THE  COURSE  IN 

PASTORAL   FUNCTIONS   AT  YALE 

DIVINITY    SCHOOL, 

1908-1909 


EDITED  BY 

CHARLES  S.  MACFARLAND 


OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY 

OF 


NEW  HAVEN,  CONN.:  YALE  UNIVERSITY  PRESS 
LONDON:  HENRY  FROWDE  :        :  MCMIX 


^ 


»1?^ 


Copyright,  1909,  by 
Yajle  University  Press 


Entered  at  Stationers'  Hall,  London 


mem^i. 


Printed  in  the  United  States 


PREFACE 

THE  lectures  in  this  volume  were  selected  from  a 
supplementary  course  of  constant  instruction  in 
1908-9  at  Yale  Divinity  School,  which  attempted  to 
cover,  as  far  as  possible,  the  entire  field  of  pastoral  work. 
They  were  chosen  out  of  many,  not  on  the  ground  of 
comparative  merit,  but  solely  on  the  basis  of  the 
subjects  herein  treated,  which  may  be  comprehended 
under  the  relation  of  the  minister  to  the  order  of 
human  society. 

They  do  not  adequately  represent  "the  Coiu^e  in 
Pastoral  Functions,"  but  only  one  aspect  of  the  wide 
and  comprehensive  nature  of  the  course.  It  is  also 
impossible,  in  a  book,  to  give  anything  like  complete 
expression  to  the  work  of  the  lecturers.  In  all  cases, 
these  instructors  used  what  might  be  called  the  "case 
system,"  setting  before  the  student  actual  examples  of 
the  way  in  which  these  principles  have  been  carried  out 
in  the  pastoral  work  of  the  instructors.  Indeed,  the 
chief  intent  of  the  course  is  to  open  up  to  the  theological 
student  the  definite,  concrete  tasks  and  problems  which 
await  him.  Thus,  this  volume  can  only  intimate  the 
deeper  nature  of  such  a  method  of  instruction  and 
can  but  partially  exhibit  the  lectiu^es  themselves,  which 
were  so  intimately  personal  and  so  peculiarly  illustra- 
tive as  to  preclude  actual  reproduction. 


195094 


VI  PREFACE 

The  wide-spread  interest,  however,  in  both  this  em- 
phasis on  the  method  of  instruction  and  the  particular 
subjects  selected  for  this  volume,  has  called  forth  so 
many  requests  for  publication  that  it  has  been  deemed 
worth  while  to  publish  the  book. 


CONTENTS 

Preface v 

Introduction  —  A  Significant  Element  in  Theological 

Education The  Editor        1 

The  Part  and  Place  of  the  Church  and  the  Ministry 
IN  the  Realization  op  Democracy 

Rev.  Charles  S.  Macfarland      11 

Trade   Unions:  The  Causes  for  their  Existence 

Henry  Sterling       45 

The  Work  and  Methods  op  Trade  Unions 

Henry  Sterling       63 

An  Exposition  and  Interpretation  of  the  Trade  Union 

Movement John  Mitchell      83 

The  Opportunity  of  the   Minister  in    Relation  to  In- 
dustrial Organizations        Rev.  Charles  S.  Macfarland     113 

The  Church  and  the  Wage-Earner 

Rev.  Edvnn  B.  Robinson     145 

The  Opportunity  and  the   Mission  op  the    Church  and 
Ministry  among  Non-English-Speaking  People 

Rev.  Ozora  S.  Davis     169 

The  Minister  and  the  Rural  Community 

Rev.  Wilbert  L.  Anderson     199 

The  Essentials  of  a  Ministry  to  Men 

Rev.  Anson  Phelps  Stokes,  Jr.     223 

The  Ministry  of  Mental  Healing      Rev.  Oeorge  B.  Cvtten    241 

The  Minister  in  Association  with  International  Move- 
ments       Rev.  Frederick  Lynch    269 


INTRODUCTION 

A   SIGNIFICANT    ELEMENT   IN  THEOLOGICAL 
EDUCATION 

By  the  Editor 


^    OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY 

OF 


A  SIGNIFICANT    ELEMENT  IN  THEOLOGICAL 
EDUCATION 

THE  institution  of  ''The  Course  in  Pastoral  Func- 
tions" at  Yale  Divinity  School  undoubtedly  evi- 
denced the  serious  systematization  of  an  important 
method  in  theological  instruction.  While  it  may  be 
said  that  this  kind  of  teaching  has  always  been  used 
in  a  supplementary  way,  this  is  among  the  early 
attempts  to  make  it  complete  and  systematic  and  to 
adjust  it  to  the  regular  work  and  study. 

There  has  been  a  growing  feeling  that  our  theological 
schools  do  not  have  that  close  and  operative  relation 
with  the  life  of  the  churches  and  of  human  society  that 
they  ought  to  have.  They  have  been  more  or  less 
exclusively  academic.  While  the  graduates  went  forth 
to  their  work  thoroughly  grounded  in  the  underlying 
principles  of  their  ministry,  they  were  not  so  thoroughly 
prepared  for  the  immediate  vital  and  practical  prob- 
lems and  opportunities  which  awaited  them.  They 
were  often  unacquainted  with  their  more  definite,  con- 
crete duties. 

Our  standard  theological  schools  have  not  been 
wanting  in  strong  intellectual  equipment.  Their  fac- 
ulties have  been  adorned  by  illustrious  names.  Upon 
this  side  there  has  been  no  serious  diminishing.     The 

3 


4  THEOLOGICAL  EDUCATION 

permanent  faculties  are  now  composed  of  eminent 
scholars.  So  far  as  the  inculcation  of  fundamental 
principles  is  concerned,  no  one  has  felt  that  there  was 
any  general  deficiency.  Nor  is  it  to  be  supposed  that 
there  would  be  any  advantage  in  the  disparagement  of 
this  intellectual  training.  First  of  all,  the  minister  must 
have  a  great  message,  and  his  scholarship  needs  to  be 
deep  and  broad.  It  would  be  a  serious  mistake  to 
lose  any  prestige  in  this  respect.  Theology  in  all  its 
branches,  using  the  word  broadly,  should  remain  as  the 
essential  feature  of  preparation  for  preaching  the  gospel. 
The  so-called  practical  work  is  necessarily  dependent 
and  complementary.  The  lectures  in  this  very  course 
continually  emphasized  the  work  of  the  minister  as  a 
student.  Yale  has  not  been  behind  the  other  schools  of 
learning  in  her  practical  work,  but  it  is  probably  true 
that  they  all  have  need  of  some  revision  in  this  interest. 

There  has  been,  therefore,  at  least  a  certain  inter- 
rogatory attitude  as  to  whether  or  not  there  was  a 
certain  lack  of  practical  preparation.  Did  the  men  go 
out  ready  to  cope  with  the  great  problems  of  the  church 
and  especially  of  human  society?  Did  they  know  men 
as  well  as  books?  Were  they  prepared  to  put  into 
inmiediate  and  effective  practice  the  great  principles 
which  they  had  learned?  Men  need  to  know  how  to 
act  and  what  to  do,  as  well  as  how  and  what  to 
think.  They  must  imderstand  the  world  of  life  as 
well  as  the  imiverse  of  principles,  and  be  as  familiar 
with  intimate  effects  as  with  remote  causes. 

Other  professional  schools,  such  as  those  of  law  and 


THEOLOGICAL   EDUCATION  5 

medicine,  have  always,  or  at  least  for  a  considerable 
time,  had  faculties  composed  very  largely  of  men 
engaged  in  the  active  practice  of  their  professions. 
The  clinical  method  and  the  case  system  have  been 
important  features.  Normal  schools  are  also  adopting 
the  same  idea.  These  new  theological  courses  seem  to 
be  analogous.  The  men  who  have  been  appointed  as 
instructors  are  active,  and  in  most  cases,  remarkably 
successful  ministers,  in  average  pastorates.  They  come 
to  the  class-room  fresh  from  their  work.  It  is  expected  ■ 
that  they  will  make  the  point  of  connection  between  the 
great  principles  taught  by  the  regular  members  of  the 
faculty,  and  the  actual  conditions,  needs,  and  oppor- 
tunities which  society  presents  to  the  minister  when  he 
enters  upon  his  active  hfe.  All  other  departments  of 
education  have  found  it  necessary  to  subject  them- 
selves to  the  processes  of  modification  and  substitution, 
and  there  is  no  reason  why  this  department  should  not 
be  amenable  to  these  necessary  means  of  progress. 

Moreover,  this  course  of  instruction  seems  to  indicate 
a  large  conception  of  the  church  and  the  ministry. 
Apparently  the  minister  is  not  simply  to  be  sent  out  to 
shepherd  a  particular  flock.  He  is  to  do  this,  but  more 
than  this.  He  is  to  serve  his  community,  and  human 
society  at  large,  in  any  and  every  way  by  which  his 
personality  may  be  brought  to  bear.  He  goes  out  into 
the  kingdom  of  Grod  rather  than  solely  into  a  church. 
He  is  to  do  more  than  administer  ecclesiastical  functions. 
The  idea  seems  to  be  that,  from  his  standing  ground  as 
a  pastor,  he  is  to  engage  in  all  great  social  movements, 


6  THEOLOGICAL  EDUCATION 

and  is  to  make  his  church  a  directing  factor  in  such 
movements.  He  and  the  church  together  are  to  serve 
the  world.  This  is  what  may  be  read  between  the  lines 
of  this  system  of  instruction.  It  is  indicated  by  such 
subjects  as  that  of  service  among  non-English-speaking 
people,  by  Dr.  Davis;  the  relation  of  the  minister  to 
national  and  international  movements,  by  Mr.  Ljnich, 
and  the  work  of  civic  reform,  industrial  organizations, 
political  life,  and  social  movements.  The  course  was 
evenly  balanced  in  this  regard.  The  care  of  his  church 
is  not  overlooked.  He  is  to  look  after  the  flock,  but 
also  to  have  other  sheep  not  of  that  fold. 

It  seems  as  though  this  ought  to  have  a  marked  effect 
in  making  the  Christian  ministry  attractive  to  strong 
men.  It  cannot  be  denied  that  it  has  been  deemed 
unattractive.  Was  this  because  the  minister  was  sup- 
posed to  be  confined  to  a  limited  round  of  relatively 
small  functions?  Was  it  because  his  profession,  to  a 
certain  extent,  seemed  to  shut  him  off  from  the  great 
movements  of  mankind?  Undoubtedly  there  has  been 
some  such  feeling,  and  it  has  probably  had  very  much 
to  do  with  the  diminishing  number  of  men  seeking  this 
great  profession.  If,  however,  the  ministry  of  the 
gospel  is  to  be  so  large  a  thing  as  this  scope  of  prepara- 
tion indicates,  if  the  minister  from  henceforth  is  to  be 
a  power  in  civic  life,  an  influence  in  solving  the  great 
problems  of  our  democracy,  then  we  may  venture  to 
predict  a  very  speedy  renaissance. 

At  any  rate  the  new  ministry  will  be  effective.  If  we 
read  this  programme  aright,  it  means  that  our  Divinity 


THEOLOGICAL  EDUCATION  7 

schools  are,  first  of  all,  to  turn  out  strong  men,  men  of 
action.  They  are  to  go  out  and  make  strong  churches. 
They  are  to  make  themselves  and  those  churches  the 
directors  of  great  social  movements.  It  is  a  splendid 
programme. 

For  example,  instruction  should  be  given  in  the  con- 
versational use  of  foreign  tongues.  Suppose  the  min- 
ister can  thus  make  a  point  of  contact  with  the  great 
masses  of  foreigners  who  are  coming  into  almost  every 
community?  He  might  save  them  from  being  led 
about  and  unworthily  used  by  selfish  leaders.  Why 
might  he  not  step  in  and  be  their  guide  rather  than 
the  cheap  politician?  It  seems  as  though  there  ought 
to  be  a  great  deal  in  all  this. 

This  method  of  systematic  practical  instruction  will 
undoubtedly  go  farther  in  years  to  come.  It  must  go 
farther  if  young  ministers  are  to  go  out  into  the  world 
ready  to  become  effective  leaders  in  society.  This 
element  of  teaching  will  imquestionably  be  amplified 
and  broadened  and  given  increased  space  in  the  theo- 
logical curriculum  of  the  future.  The  coiu'se,  however, 
from  which  the  lectures  in  this  book  have  been  selected, 
was  fairly  comprehensive.  In  addition  to  that  portion 
which  is  represented  in  this  volume,  the  following 
subjects  were  also  presented : 

"The  Minister's  Work  in  Civic  Reform,  in  Politr 
ical  Life,  and  in  Municipal  Betterment,"  was  given 
considerable  attention.  "The  Sunday  School"  was 
treated  by  Rev.  A.  F.  Schauffler,  D.D.,  of  New  York, 
and   "The  Midweek  Service"  by  Rev.  Frederick  B. 


8  THEOLOGICAL  EDUCATION 

Richards,  of  Boston,  a  graduate  of  Yale  Divinity  School 
in  the  class  of  1891.  The  problem  of  ^'Church  Adminis- 
tration and  Finances  "  was  opened  up  by  Rev.  Henry 
A.  Stimson,  D.D.,  of  New  York.  ''The  Methods  of 
Caring  for  Church  Benevolences "  were  set  forth  by 
Secretary  Cornelius  H.  Patton,  D.D.,  of  the  Class  of 
1886.  The  "Methods  of  the  Emmanuel  Clinic  "  were 
explained  by  Rev.  Elwood  Worcester,  D.D.,  of  Em- 
manuel Church.  Rev.  Nehemiah  Boynton,  D.D.,  of 
Brooklyn,  instructed  the  students  in  the  important  but 
often  neglected  requirements  of  "Professional  Courtesy." 
The  bringing  in  of  labour  leaders  like  John  Mitchell, 
Henry  Sterling,  and  several  other  social  leaders,  in 
the  course  in  Sociology,  is  marked  evidence  of  the 
seriousness  of  the  work  in  hand,  the  idea  being  to 
open  up  to  the  students  the  hearts  and  consciences  of 
men  who  represent  great  bodies  of  wage-earners,  and 
who  guide  the  destinies  of  other  humanitarian  move- 
ments. Ought  not  the  minister  to  join  forces  with 
these  men  at  the  very  beginning  of  his  ministry,  or  at 
least  know  them,  their  work  and  their  ideals?  Several 
well-known  business  men,  including  Henry  Clews  and 
Rossiter  Raymond,  were  also  brought  into  this  order, 
which  was  carried  out  under  the  Department  of  Soci- 
ology. Commercial  problems,  from  another  point  of 
view,  were  also  presented  in  another  series  of  Uni- 
versity lectures,  by  business  leaders.^ 

1  Such  as  "  the  Page  Lectures,"  published  by  the  Yale  University 
Press,  and  including,  for  example,  "Corporate  and  Other  Trusts," 
by  James  McKeen. 


THEOLOGICAL  EDUCATION  9 

It  is  interesting  to  notice  the  way  in  which  the  various 
lecturers  supplement  each  other's  work.  For  example, 
while  one  instructor  treated  the  matter  of  getting  into 
touch  with  great  outside  bodies  of  wage-earners,  in 
order  to  associate  them  with  the  church  and  its  ministry, 
another,  Mr.  Robinson,  showed  what  we  must  do  with 
them  and  for  them  within  the  church  itself. 

Not  the  least  among  the  good  results  has  been  that 
the  academic  shades  of  the  school  have  been  lightened 
by  the  wider  opening  of  the  doors  and  windows  to  the 
vital  throbbing  life  of  the  world  of  men  and  deeds. 
Thought  and  contemplation  have  been  brought  into 
contact  with  action  and  achievement.  Truth  and  fact 
have  come  together  for  adjustment.  A  certain  new 
warmth  and  feeling  have  been  noticeable. 

The  end  is  not  yet.  This  has  been  only  a  beginning, 
although  a  serious  one.  When  this  method  is  carried 
out  to  completion  it  will  mean  a  great  joining  of  forces. 
The  regular  faculties  are,  and  should  remain,  great 
scholars,  thinkers,  men  of  ideals.  These  supplementary 
instructors  are  men  of  action,  leaders,  doers  of  the 
word  that  has  been  taught,  men  of  ideas. 

The  following  up  of  the  lectures  by  personal  inter- 
views between  the  students  and  the  instructors  will 
offer  a  further  opportunity  of  helping  the  students  to 
get  into  personal  relations  with  ministers  of  experience, 
and  may  also  acquaint  the  instructors  with  present 
day  theological  thought.  Indeed,  no  little  of  the  gain 
is  to  the  lecturing  visitors  themselves. 

Undoubtedly,  also,  the  custom  will  follow,  of  putting 


10  THEOLOGICAL  EDUCATION 

the  students  out  under  the  care  of  such  ministers,  as  a 
part  of  their  education.  This  will  help  solve  the  problem 
of  pecuniary  aid,  as  the  students  may  thus  render  ser- 
vice to  the  pastors  and  chm-ches  in  return  for  the  scholar- 
ship funds.  This,  as  a  part  of  the  whole  scheme,  will 
help  to  keep  the  churches  and  the  schools  of  theology 
in  close  touch  with  each  other,  as  they  should  be. 

The  theological  school  should  thus  be  closely  asso- 
ciated with  the  college  on  the  one  side  and  with  the 
churches  and  the  Hfe  of  the  world  on  the  other.  Adapt- 
ing itself  to  its  twofold  environment,  it  is  thus  fitted 
to  fulfil  its  function  as  the  refigious  interpreter  and 
moulder  of  human  society.  There  ought  to  be  a  mighty 
movement  when  these  great  streams  of  thought  and 
streams  of  action  fairly  meet. 

It  ought  also  to  help  solve  the  question  of  supplying 
the  ministry  with  men.  It  would  seem  that  the  strong 
young  men  in  our  colleges  cannot  fail  to  be  attracted 
by  so  splendid  a  conception  of  the  ministry  as  imder- 
lies  this  system  of  training. 

Charles  S.  Macfarland, 

of  the  Alumni  Advisory  Committee  of 
Yale  Divinity  School, 

The  Congregational  Parsonage, 
Smdh  Narwalk,  Conn.,  May  15,  1909. 


THE  PART  AND  PLACE  OF  THE  CHURCH 
AND  THE  MINISTRY  IN  THE  REALI- 
ZATION OF  DEMOCRACY 

BY 

Rev.  Charles  S.  Macfarland,  Ph.D. 

A  graduate  of  Yale  Divinity  School  in  1897,  and  the 
pastor  of  the  Congregational  Church  in  the  manufacturing 
and  cosmopolitan  city  of  South  Norwalk,  Connecticut, 


THE  PART  AND  PLACE  OF  THE  CHURCH  AND 

THE   MINISTRY   IN   THE   REALIZATION    OF 
DEMOCRACY 

IT  becomes  my  task,  in  this  course,  to  take  you  out- 
side the  work  of  the  pastor  in  relation  to  his  own 
church  and  parish,  and  to  consider  some  of  the  oppor- 
tunities for  influence  and  service  which  the  minister 
may  find  in  the  corporate  life  of  the  city,  state,  and 
nation  and  of  human  society  at  large.  We  are  to 
consider  how  he  may  deal  with  men  in  masses  and 
societies. 

I  do  not  mean  that  this  shall  be  interpreted  as  any 
disparagement  of  the  closer  circle  of  his  duties  as  the 
shepherd  of  his  own  flock,  but,  Uke  the  Master,  he  must 
have  other  sheep  who  are  not  of  that  fold. 

Nor  do  I  mean,  in  urging  these  great  practical  and 
utilitarian  considerations,  to  underestimate  the  value 
of  consecrated  scholarship  or  the  effect  of  the  preaching 
of  the  gospel.  I  am  assuming  that  the  minister  has  the 
work  of  his  own  church  in  hand,  and  that  he  has  com- 
mand of  all  its  forces.  I  take  for  granted  that  he  is 
meeting  the  requirements  of  his  pulpit  and  his  pastorate. 
These  assumptions  are  necessary.  He  must  first  of  all 
make  his  church,  and  himself  as  the  leader  of  that 
church,  a  strong  central  power  from  which  his  wider 

13 


14  THE  MINISTER  AND  DEMOCRACY 

influence  must  radiate.  His  forces  must  be  both  cen- 
tripetal and  centrifugal. 

For  example,  if  he  is  to  fill  this  larger  place  which  I 
am  to  describe,  he  must  have,  first  of  all,  the  intellectual 
power  to  dominate  the  minds  of  men.  He  must  have 
spiritual  influence  in  order  to  reach  and  change  their 
hearts  and  must,  above  all,  win  their  allegiance  and 
affection. 

While  there  are  many  petty  functions  from  which  he 
must  teach  and  induce  his  people  to  be  large  enough 
to  release  him,  he  must  not  neglect  to  conserve  the 
forces  of  his  own  church  as  the  centre  of  his  power,  in 
order  that  he  may  thus  have  an  unshaken  platform 
from  which  to  speak  to  the  more  distant  and  uncertain 
multitudes.  While  the  electrical  forces  of  his  person- 
ality must  extend  to  vital  touch  with  every  department 
of  human  life,  the  unfailing  battery  must  be  in  his  own 
church  and  study. 

Thus  you  must  realize,  at  the  outset,  that  I  am  not 
misleading  you  to  substitute  the  circumference  for  the 
centre.  I  shall  fail  of  my  object  if  I  lead  you  to  suppose 
that  you  are  to  dissipate  your  forces  and  spread  your- 
selves out  thin.  The  real  fact,  therefore,  is,  that  it  is 
only  the  man  who  is  strong  in  his  own  church  who  can 
maintain  his  strength  in  the  larger  life  of  his  community. 
Indeed,  to  a  large  extent,  he  must  work  out  his  influ- 
ence, not  by  direct  contact,  but  through  other  person- 
alities. Those  personalities  must  be  the  men,  and  the 
women  also,  of  his  own  church. 

With  this  understanding,  I  will  now  proceed  to  open 


THE  MINISTER  AND  DEMOCRACY  15 

up  to  you,  if  I  can,  some  ways  in  which  the  minister 
may  become  a  vital  factor  in  his  city,  a  man  to  be 
reckoned  with  in  every  great  movement,  a  man  to  be 
consulted  upon  all  important  questions  affecting  the 
life  of  the  people,  a  dominant  force  in  the  making  and 
the  moulding  of  the  democratic  order. 

He  will  not  find  this  position  already  waiting  for  him. 
If  he  will  allow  himself  to  be  ignored  he  will  be  pretty 
much  left  alone  within  the  narrow  circle  of  his  own 
parish.  He  must  create  his  own  power.  He  must  seek 
and  find  his  larger  opportunities.  To  do  this  he  will 
need  to  become  a  keen,  observant,  energetic,  instant, 
moral  opportunist. 

All  the  great  movements  of  mankind,  in  the  social 
and  the  political  orders  of  our  great  and  divine  humani- 
tarian interests,  may  be  comprehended  as  the  struggle, 
in  which  our  own  nation  is  leading,  for  the  reahzation 
of  a  true  democracy,  a  Christian  democracy,  the  effort 
to  actually  realize  human  brotherhood  under  the  divine 
fatherhood. 

You  enter  upon  your  ministry  under  very  new  and 
different  conditions  from  those  which  your  fathers,  or 
even  yom*  elder  brothers,  faced.  You  look  out  upon  a 
very  complex  life  and  civilization.  Your  parishes,  and 
your  communities  still  more,  you  will  find,  in  a  large 
sense,  will  be  made  up  of  many  alien  peoples  and  many 
divergent  minds  and  movements.  They  ought  to  be  so 
constituted.    The  more  they  are  so,  the  better. 

If  you  thus  look  out  upon  the  life  around  you  with  a 
thoughtful  and  serious  heart,  you  will  at  once  be  faced 


16  THE  MINISTER  AND  DEMOCRACY 

by  great  and  perplexing  problems.  How  is  all  this 
social  chaos  to  be  made  a  moral  cosmos?  How  are  we 
to  bring  all  these  widely  differing  peoples  to  live  to- 
gether in  mutual  understanding  and  affection?  How 
shall  the  employer  and  the  wage-earner  be  brought  to 
obey  the  Master's  command  that  men  should  love  one 
another?  How  shall  our  political  and  civic  life  be 
transformed  into  a  true  theocracy?  How  shall  all  its 
great  evil  powers  be  destroyed  and  its  forces  of  right- 
eousness be  brought  to  prevail?  He  who  looks  out 
upon  human  affairs  thoughtfully  will  share  the  varying 
and  contrasting  moods  of  the  great  psalmists.  Such  a 
man  faces  a  world  which  often  makes  him  shudder,  fills 
his  soul  with  horror,  at  times  with  depressing  doubts, 
and  even,  occasionally,  with  flashes  of  despair.  He  is 
sometimes  tempted  to  lay  aside  all  our  modern  idealism 
and  be  satisfied  with  getting  a  few  choice  souls  into  the 
ark  of  safety,  letting  the  floods  prevail.  For  he  wit- 
nesses on  every  hand  the  damning  sordid  greed  of  gold. 
Upon  all  sides  the  world's  bribes,  its  prostitutions  of 
sacred  trusts,  its  usurious  profits,  the  binding  of  heavy 
burdens  grievous  to  be  borne,  its  manifold  representa- 
tions of  Dives  at  his  table  and  Lazarus  at  the  gate,  its 
whited  sepulchres  filled  with  dead  men's  bones,  its 
specious,  haggard  codes  of  both  individual  and  corpo- 
rate conduct,  its  heartless  social  castes.  The  man  whose 
soul  is  not  occasionally  cast  down  can  hardly  have  a 
soul  to  be  cast  down. 

All  of  these  great  problems  are  too  much  for  him 
without  God.    His  ultimate  conclusion  is  either  of  two 


THE  MINISTER  AND  DEMOCRACY  17 

unevadable  alternatives  —  it  is  either  God  and  infinite 
hope,  or  atheism  and  absolute  despair.  If,  in  the  face 
of  his  tremendous  undertaking,  he  holds  to  the  former, 
he  becomes  a  man  of  power,  with  both  ^Hhe  vision  and 
the  task."  Thus,  like  the  psalmist,  he  must  lift  up 
his  eyes  unto  the  hills,  his  mood  must  change,  and 
while  he  remains  a  thoughtful  realist  attempting  the 
problem,  he  must  also  become  a  great  and  glowing 
idealist,  beHeving  in  God,  and  believing  also  in  mankind. 
For,  when  lighted  up  by  a  radiant  idealism,  our 
democracy  assumes  a  splendid  view.  As  I  look  out  of 
my  study  window,  from  the  hilltop,  I  look  upon  a 
glorious  sight.  It  is  not  only  that  of  the  beautiful 
waters  of  the  sound;  I  love  still  more  to  look  down 
upon  the  smoky  factories  with  their  busy  hum,  and  out 
upon  the  great  industrial  life  down  yonder  in  the  dis- 
tricts where  the  peoples  from  all  nations  of  the  world, 
and  the  islands  of  the  sea,  have  come  that  they  might 
find  truth  and  freedom.  It  is  a  resplendent  vision  just 
because  it  does  give  men  a  splendid  problem  to  solve 
and  a  great  work  to  do.  It  fills  the  minister  with  a 
deep  and  responsible  joy  as  he  looks  out  upon  those 
great  difficulties  with  the  splendid  consciousness  in  his 
own  heart  and  soul  that  he,  and  he  in  a  certain  way 
almost  alone,  has  the  key  to  their  solution  in  the  great 
gospel  of  his  Master.  He  knows  that  where  there  is 
no  vision  the  people  perish.  He  must  look  out  upon 
the  heavenly  horizon  and  witness  the  mirage.  As  he 
looks  down  upon  the  hfe  of  his  city  he  sees  there,  with 
his  splendid  idealism,  the  new  Jerusalem  coming  down 


18  THE  MINISTER  AND  DEMOCRACY 

from  God.  His  glorious  task  is  not  merely  to  save  a 
few  fragments  of  human  society,  but  to  make  his  city 
that  new  Jerusalem  descending  out  of  heaven,  a  holy 
city.  Thus  every  preacher's  study  should  become  an 
Isle  of  Patmos. 

Then  there  is  another  way  of  looking  at  this  great 
industrial  and  social  order.  He  goes  out,  and  as  he 
walks  about  the  street  and  hears  the  rh)rthmic  hum  of 
the  factories,  especially  at  dusk,  when  their  lights  are 
shining,  he  thinks  of  the  patient  men  and  women  in 
there  making,  for  their  fellow  men,  the  clothing  that 
they  wear.  Then  the  whirling  wheels  are  music  to  his 
ears  and  the  curling  smoke  from  the  chimney-top  is 
like  incense  ascending  to  heaven.  As  he  passes  the 
busy  store  he  sees  the  weary  girl  with  her  aching  back, 
waiting  upon  and  serving  her  fellows.  He  meets  the 
tired  teacher  of  the  public  schools  just  going  from  her 
arduous  ministry,  the  lawyer  who  has  just  been  trying 
to  gain  justice  for  his  clients.  He  passes  the  doors  of 
the  hospital  where  the  physician  and  the  nurse  have 
kept  their  night-long  vigil.  He  takes  the  street  car,  or 
the  train,  and  finds  men  ready  to  serve  him  and  carry 
him  about  upon  his  errands  of  mercy.  As  he  returns 
to  his  home  by  night  he  passes  the  policeman  faithfully 
and  shiveringly  protecting  human  life.  In  the  mid- 
night hour  he  hears  the  loud  alarm  and  knows  that 
men  are  ready  to  protect  his  home  from  the  dread 
ravages  of  fire.  Thus,  ever5rwhere,  on  every  hand,  in 
this  great  democratic  life  of  ours,  he  sees  that  men  and 
women  are  serving  each  other,  according  to  the  Master's 


THE  MINISTER  AND  DEMOCRACY  19 

law,  even  though  they  know  it  not.  Now,  then,  he 
must  make  them  to  see  this  great  vision  of  their  own 
life,  he  must  show  them  that  thus  they  do  receive  by 
giving,  save  by  losing,  and  that  in  their  common  toil 
they  are  all  bearing  one  another's  burdens.  They,  too, 
must  see  and  feel  as  he  does.  To  do  this  the  minister 
must  transform  his  glowing  ideals  into  practical  and 
realizable  ideas.  And  he  must  gain  the  power  to  realize 
them.    This  is  the  way  to  look  at  human  hfe. 

The  minister  of  to-day,  I  say  it  guardedly  and  thought- 
fully, who  does  no  more  than  serve  his  own  church, 
preach  to  his  own  congregation,  and  exert  an  influence 
upon  his  own  little  flock,  may  be  doing  a  great  deal, 
but  it  is  only  a  suggestion  of  the  power  that  he  may 
possess.  Indeed,  there  never  has  been  an  age  when 
the  opportunity  of  the  high-minded,  large-hearted,  and 
great-visioned  preacher  was  anywhere  near  so  great 
as  it  is  to-day.  While  he  must  be  faithful  to  the  church 
of  Christ,  he  must  see  that  it  is  now  only  one  department 
of  the  great  Kingdom  of  God.  That  Kingdom  of  God 
exists  in  all  these  great  movements,  in  our  industrial 
and  social  Hfe,  towards  the  realization  of  brotherhood, 
of  democracy.  There  may  be  no  other  gospels  than 
the  Gospel  of  Jesus  Christ;  for  his  was  the  gospel,  not 
of  the  church,  but  of  the  Kingdom.  But  there  are 
other  gospels  than  that  which  the  church  herself  has 
directly  taught.  There  is  the  great  gospel  of  Labour; 
every  Sunday  afternoon,  all  over  the  world,  great  bodies 
of  men  are  getting  together  and  are  preaching  this 
gospel  and  loving  this  gospel  of  theirs.    They  are  sacri- 


20  THE  MINISTER  AND  DEMOCRACY 

ficing  for  it  and  its  great  ends.  Although  these  men 
do  not  know  it,  it  is  the  gospel  of  Christ,  and  we  must 
show  them  that  it  is  the  gospel  of  Christ,  and  that, 
therefore,  they  must  have  nothing  in  their  gospel  which 
is  unchristlike.  But  we  must  first  see  that  this  great 
evangel  for  the  uplifting  of  the  great  multitudes  of 
mankind  who  labour  with  their  hands,  the  gaining  for 
them  of  larger  leisure  for  the  cultivation  of  their  minds, 
and  of  larger  compensation  for  the  rearing  of  their 
homes,  is  a  great  gospel.  With  all  its  limitations,  there 
is  a  splendid  sense  of  brotherhood  in  it,  and  these  men 
are  preaching  it  with  a  fire  and  a  fervour  and  a  great 
serious  earnestness  from  which  we,  as  preachers,  may- 
learn  much. 

There  is  also  the  great  gospel  of  Socialism.  Men  and 
women  are  even  gathering  together  their  socialist  Sunday 
schools,  all  over  the  land.  This,  too,  is  a  splendid 
gospel,  whatever  we  may  say  of  its  limited  equipment, 
of  its  mistaken  means  and  methods.  It  is  a  gospel 
with  a  splendid  idealism.  It  is  an  evangel  which  is 
proclaiming,  with  its  stammering  tongue,  this  new 
Jerusalem  which  is  descending  out  of  heaven.  I  do 
not  mean  that  all  its  leaders  so  teach  it.  I  mean  that 
its  highest  and  best  leaders  may  be  so  interpreted. 
Like  all  gospels,  it  has  its  false  prophets. 

There  are  these  and  countless  others.  The  gospel  of 
Anti-Tuberculosis,  the  gospel  of  the  Fraternal  Orders, 
such  and  many  others,  we  must  think  about,  nay,  more 
than  this,  we  must  have  our  part  and  place  in  them. 
It  is  all  these,  together  with  the  gospel  of  the  church, 


THE  MINISTER  AND  DEMOCRACY  21 

that  makes  up  what  Christ  calls,  in  the  light  of  his 
infinite  vision,  the  Kingdom  of  God.  My  thesis,  then, 
is  that  the  minister  is  to  become  the  minister,  the  guide, 
the  director  of  all  these  great  movements  of  mankind. 

While  it  is  true  to-day  that  in  some  ways  the  church 
has  lost  her  place  and  power  as  these  other  gospels  have 
arisen,  we  must  remember  that,  after  all,  she  and  her 
gospel  have  given  rise  to  these.  The  great  stream  of 
which  the  Christian  church  is  the  source  has  overflown 
her  banks.  In  other  words,  just  as  Jesus  prophesied, 
the  church  is  becoming  the  greater  Kingdom  of  God. 
I  profoundly  believe  that  she  and  her  gospel  must 
remain  as  the  source  and  the  centre  of  these  great 
movements.  Unless  she  does,  they  are  likely  to  become 
false  gospels,  and  to  do  great  harm,  even  though  they 
intend,  suggest,  and  prophesy  great  good. 

Christ  is  interested  in  all  these  great  problems.  He 
is  concerned  about  the  way  men  treat  each  other.  He 
is  asking  these  men  of  capital  and  these  men  of  labour 
to  come  out  on  the  mountain  side  with  him.  Over 
against  their  mutual  selfishness  and  their  conmaon  law 
of  the  survival  of  the  fittest,  he  puts  his  new  command- 
ment before  them.  Then  he  asks  them  all  to  get  down 
to  pray,  and  as  they  pray,  to  say  "Our  Father.'^  And 
so,  in  his  name,  we  must  do,  and  we  must  find  the  way 
to  do  it. 

Thus,  the  place  of  the  church  and  the  ministry  in  the 
realization  of  democracy  must  be  a  place  of  directing 
power  and  influence;  the  minister  must  become  the 
mover  and  the  moulder  of  this  great  social  order.    In 


22  THE  MINISTER  AND  DEMOCRACY 

some  way  he  must  become  its  minister.  The  Christian 
chm*ch  ought  to  become  a  great  clearing-house  for  all 
these  humanitarian  transactions.  All  men  and  women 
should  look,  both  for  the  righting  of  their  wrongs  and 
the  adjustment  of  their  differences,  to  her  and  to  her 
ministry. 

These  great  multitudes  of  mankind  are  looking  to-day, 
and  are  longing,  even  though  they  know  it  not,  for  the 
right  leadership.  Again  and  again,  as  Isaiah  said, 
'Hhey  that  lead  these  people  cause  them  to  err,  and 
they  that  are  led  of  them  are  destroyed." 

The  present  moment  is  one  of  chaos.  The  forces  are 
mainly  unregulated  and  opposing  compulsions.  In  days 
gone  by,  when  the  rich  man  rode  by  in  his  magnificent 
equipage,  the  poor  man  doffed  his  cap.  Now,  as  he 
avoids  his  automobile,  he  grinds  his  teeth.  I  had 
almost  rather  he  would  do  the  latter  than  the  former, 
but  it  is  the  business  of  the  Christian  minister  to  show 
him  that  he  must  do  neither. 

Only  a  little  while  ago,  nearly  400,000  men  in  the 
great  city  of  New  York,  who  were  looking  for  a  leader, 
a  great  social  leader,  took  a  man  who  offered  himself, 
although  he  proved  to  be  a  very  base,  unworthy  man. 
We  must  find  a  way  of  offering  ourselves  so  that  they 
will  take  us  as  their  guides,  philosophers,  and  friends. 

First  of  all,  it  is  the  business  of  the  minister  to  be, 
himself,  their  guide,  but  he  must  also  send  out  men 
from  his  own  circle  who  shall  be  great,  strong,  and 
righteous  leaders.  He  must  send  out  men  of  business 
who  will   set  themselves   lovingly  and   unselfishly  to 


THE  MINISTER  AND  DEMOCRACY  23 

adjust  these  great  problems.  He  must  send  out  from 
his  church  wage-earners  who  will  go  to  their  unions 
and  wrest  them  from  their  bad  leadership.  He  must 
send  out  men  who,  in  a  spirit  of  righteousness,  will 
control  and  direct  our  political  order. 

We  talk  a  great  deal  about  something  which  we  call 
"  public  spirit."  What  is  it?  It  is  always  the  conscience 
of  the  individual,  or  of  the  group,  awakening,  moving, 
and  dominating  the  people.  It  is  thus  only  that  the 
voice  of  the  people  becomes  the  voice  of  God. 

The  important  question  for  us  is.  How  may  we 
relate  this  order  to  the  Christian  church  and  the  Chris- 
tian ministry?  This  is  the  real  problem  of  church  and 
state.  The  dominant  individual  should  be  the  minister. 
The  regulating  group  should  be  the  church. 

It  will  not  do  to  tell  organized  mankind,  in  general 
terms,  that  they  ought  to  have  a  conscience.  In  large 
measure  we  should  be  their  conscience.  In  this  sense 
we  should  be  a  dominating  church  and  an  authoritative 
pulpit.  Oh,  again  and  again  has  the  church  lost  her 
chance  and  failed  of  her  opportunity.  She  has  spent 
her  time  playing  her  theological  fiddles  while  Rome 
burned.  She  lost  her  opportunity  in  the  days  just 
before  the  abolition  of  slavery.  She  is  in  danger  of 
losing  it  again  to-day  in  our  great  struggle  to  reaUze  a 
democracy.  She  is  losing  it  in  relation  to  our  industrial 
situation.  She  has  been  all  too  largely  and  too  long  a 
looker-on. 

But  she  lives  in  the  midst  of  a  magnificent,  historic 
opportunity.    Whether  the  issue  shall  be  weal  or  woe 


24  THE  MINISTER  AND  DEMOCRACY 

depends  on  the  last  resort  of  summoning,  arousing,  com- 
bining, and  imposing  the  great  latent  moral  forces  in 
her  midst.  These  great  moral  forces  are  in  a  state  of 
balance.  The  spirit  is,  "I  will  if  others  will."  There 
are  a  great  host  of  business  men  who  are  facing  both 
ways  and  are  ready  to  turn  either  way,  and  either  make 
a  stand  for  commercial  integrity  or  give  up  trying  to 
be  Christian  men  altogether.    We  must  decide  them. 

The  moral  conscience  of  society  awaits  the  group. 
The  group  awaits  the  individual.  The  supreme  ques- 
tion for  us  is.  Shall  the  Christian  church  be  the  group, 
the  "Servant  of  Jehovah,"  the  saving  remnant,  the 
moral  leaven  of  the  nation  and  the  world?  The  still 
nearer  question  is :  Shall  the  personal,  individual,  initia- 
tive force  in  human  society  be  the  Christian  ministry? 
Shall  the  church  be  the  imposed  conscience  on  society? 
Shall  the  conscience  of  the  prophet  become  the  imposed 
conscience  on  the  church?  Shall  they  both  have,  first 
of  all,  a  great,  burning  conscience  themselves?  Florence 
groans  and  travails  for  her  San  Marco.  San  Marco 
awaits  her  Piagnoni.  They,  in  their  turn,  await  the 
voice  of  Savonarola.  Such  is  the  waiting  attitude  of 
democracy  to-day,  as  it  awaits  the  advent  of  you  men. 

First  of  all,  the  minister  must  begin  with  his  own 
church,  for  it,  too,  needs  a  new  conception,  a  new  vision, 
a  new  conscience,  and  a  new  constitution.  The  church 
cannot  control  democracy  until  she  herself  is  demo- 
cratic.   Just  now  she  lags  behind. 

What  is  the  Christian  church?  How  does  it  differ 
from  other  human  organizations?    How  shall  it  be  con- 


THE  MINISTER  AND  DEMOCRACY  25 

stituted?  The  basis  of  selection  in  all  other  societies  is 
upon  some  ground  of  classification.  Men  come  together 
in  other  fraternal  circles  because  of  intellectual  sym- 
pathies or  social  congenialities.  But  can  the  church  do 
this? 

Another  question  we  may  ask:  Does  the  Christian 
church  exist  for  the  sake  of  herself,  or  for  the  sake  of 
humanity?  What  is  the  church  for?  We  answer:  To 
help  men  live  right.  How  then  can  we  do  it  best,  by 
having  them  on  the  inside  or  by  keeping  them  on  the 
outside,  by  exclusion  and  probation,  or  by  fellowship 
with  them? 

If  the  church  is  a  society  for  the  good,  who  are  the 
good?  Who  is  to  determine,  in  the  Hght  of  the  great 
problems  of  heredity  and  environment?  Who  shall 
answer  the  question?  Who  is  empowered  to  make  the 
selection?  Who  is  able  to  read  the  intentions  and  mo- 
tives of  men's  hearts?  Have  we  the  right  to  exercise 
the  prerogatives  of  the  judgment  day? 

Or  shall  we  think  of  the  church  as  a  hospital  for  men's 
souls?  One  of  the  finest  books  of  instruction  ever 
written  for  a  minister  issued  from  this  school  with  the 
beautiful  title,  ''The  Cure  of  Souls."  Suppose  the  hos- 
pital should  put  up  a  sign  outside  its  doors:  Only  those 
who  are  well  enough  are  admitted  here.  We  liken  the 
church  to  the  school.  Suppose  the  school  should  say: 
You  must  learn  first  before  you  can  get  in  here.  It  will 
take  only  a  httle  thought  to  show  us  that  the  church 
must  have  an  absolutely  open  door,  without  any  condi- 
tions whatever  to  its  entrance. 


26  THE  MINISTER  AND  DEMOCRACY 

We  have  not  done  this.  We  have  not  dared  to  soil 
our  phylacteries.  We  have  created  a  wrong  impression 
among  those  whom  we  should  seek.  Democracy  has 
waited  outside  so  long  that  she  has  turned  her  back. 
Or,  truer,  has  gone  on  ahead,  without  us. 

If  we  are  to  follow  Christ,  there  is  only  one  attitude 
for  us  to  take.  The  church  cannot  adopt  a  policy  of 
protection,  she  must  have  a  free  and  open  market. 
She  must  have  no  restriction  of  immigration  to  her 
shores.  She  can  require  no  certificate  of  moral  stand- 
ing, no  guaranty  of  moral  health;  she  can  have  nothing 
but  an  open  door.  To  the  unbeliever  we  must  say, 
Come  in  and  learn  that  you  may  believe.  To  the  man 
who  says  he  has  had  no  rehgious  '* experience,"  we 
must  say,  Come  in  and  share  the  warmth  of  this  fel- 
lowship, and  let  your  affections  be  touched  by  Christ. 
To  the  man  of  moral  weakness  we  must  say,  Come  in 
and  share  our  strength.  If  he  says:  I  am  too  weak  and 
unwell,  we  must  respond.  This  is  the  abiding  place  of 
the  greatest  of  physicians.  If  he  persists  and  tells  us 
he  is  afraid  that  he  may  fall  again,  we  must  say: 
If  you  do,  we  will  lift  you  up,  even  four  hundred  and 
ninety  times.  The  church  cannot  be  a  Castle  Garden 
with  its  officers  on  guard.  It  cannot  have  any  quaran- 
tine-station. If  there  is  any  ground  of  exclusion  what- 
ever, it  must  be  only  that  which  excludes  the  Pharisee, 
who  thinks  that  he  is  good  enough. 

The  supreme  question  for  us  to-day  is.  Does  the  church 
dare  to  eat  with  pubhcans  and  sinners,  to  invite  them 
to  her  own  table,  to  let  the  sinful  women  in  with  their 


THE  MINISTER  AND  DEMOCRACY  27 

alabaster  boxes,  to  welcome  sinners,  not  simply  to  seek 
the  righteous,  to  heal  the  sick,  and  not  the  whole  who 
need  no  physician?  She  must  open  her  doors,  not  the 
doors  of  wood,  but  the  doors  of  her  closest  fellowship, 
to  every  human  child  of  the  Father  who  knocks;  and  if 
he  is  too  weak  to  knock,  we  must  knock  for  him. 

Shall  she  go  on  gathering  from  the  world  for  the  sake 
of  herself,  or  shall  she  give  herself  for  the  sake  of  the 
world  ?  Shall  she  invite  to  her  table  not  only  the  worthy, 
but  the  needy?  Let  us  no  longer  shut  up  the  Kingdom 
of  Heaven  with  the  rusty  keys  of  doctrine.  Let  us  get 
absolutely  rid  of  our  lingering  idea  of  the  Christian 
church  as  a  collection  of  those  who  may  thank  God  that 
they  are  not  as  other  men  are. 

Does  this  mean  a  church  that  ignores  truth,  neglects 
religion,  and  countenances  sin?  By  no  means!  The 
open-door  church  must  be  a  strong  church,  with  earnest 
seekers  and  upholders  of  truth,  with  symbolism  that 
shall  appeal  to  the  imagination,  full  of  a  religious  con- 
tagion, and  above  all  with  men  and  women  of  great 
moral  strength.  The  ideal  church  will  have  in  its  fel- 
lowship both  the  strong  and  the  weak  in  faith,  in  sense, 
in  religious  feeling  and  in  moral  character,  in  order  that 
the  strong  may  be  there  to  help  the  weak;  and  the 
weak,  that  they  may  receive  the  strength  of  the  strong. 

We  must  distinguish  between  our  constituency  and 
our  ideals.  The  invitation  cannot  be  too  broad  nor  the 
ideal  requirements  too  exacting.  We  must  remember 
the  inequalities  of  privilege  and  opportunity  in  the 
exaction  of  actual  requirements. 


28  THE  MINISTER  AND  DEMOCRACY 

We  must  take  the  publicans  and  sinners  with  us  to 
hear  the  searching  sermon  on  the  mount.  But  we  must 
have  them  "with  us."  Every  church  must  have  her 
seventy  lesser  disciples  as  well  as  her  eleven  faithful 
apostles  and  her  Johns. 

Why  do  we  not  reach  the  great  masses  of  needy  men 
and  women?  Why,  just  because  we  do  not  reach  them. 
We  have  tried  to  do  it  at  arm's  length.  They  are  both 
afraid  of  us  and  in  doubt  about  us.  We  have  put  up 
impassable  barriers,  and  beckoned  to  them  from  our 
alleged  summits.  If  we  are  going  to  cure  the  sick  we 
must  let  them  into  the  hospital  first. 

We  shall  make  the  church  strong  when  we  thus  make 
it  for  the  weak.  We  can  risk  it.  The  Gospel  of  Jesus 
is  the  solvent  that  will  bring  coherency  out  of  inco- 
herency.  Its  leaven  will  do  its  work.  The  strong  men 
of  the  church  will  become  stronger  by  having  the  weak 
beside  them,  and  by  the  giving  of  their  strength.  The 
weak  will  become  stronger  from  the  touch  of  the  strong. 
But  the  touch  must  be,  not  of  the  finger-tips,  but  of  the 
whole  hand.  It  must  be  the  touch  of  loving  contact, 
not  of  mere  example;  it  must  be  that  of  fellowship  and 
conmiunion. 

Our  present  church  people  must  be  shown  that  they 
are  the  children  of  privilege,  that,  however  true  it  may 
be  ideally,  men  are  not  actually  born  free  and  equal, 
that  they  must  consider  the  great  influences  of  heredity 
and  environment,  they  must  put  themselves  in  other 
men's  places.  As  they  look  out,  for  example,  upon 
their  alien  neighbours,  they  must  look  across  the  sea  and 


THE  MINISTER  AND  DEMOCRACY  29 

witness  the  surroundings  from  whence  they  came. 
They  must  think  of  all  the  things  that  have  entered 
into  their  own  Hfe  which  these  other  men  have  not. 
They  must  do  all  this  when  they  think  of  the  sociahst 
and  his  mistakes,  of  the  labour  union  man  and  his  blun- 
ders. They  must  remember  that  to  us  have  been  en- 
trusted the  oracles  of  God,  and  that, 

"  The  world  sits  at  the  feet  of  Christ, 
Unknowing,  blind  and  unconsoled." 

And  yet  there  is  often  a  loftier  human  idealism  and 
infinitely  more  Christian  passion  in  a  Cooper  Union 
audience  than  in  a  Christian  congregation,  and  if  you 
do  not  beUeve  it,  go  to  a  city  church  some  Sunday 
morning  and  to  Cooper  Union  in  the  evening. 

The  church  must  be  shown  that  all  this  social  tumult 
is  because  Jesus  of  Nazareth  is  passing  by,  and  that 
these  multitudes  have  seen  him  and  are  reaching  out  for 
him,  even  though  they  know  not  what  they  seek,  and  are 
often  like 

"An  infant  crying  in  the  night. 
An  infant  crying  for  the  light, 
And  with  no  language  but  a  cry.'* 

We  must  ourselves  see,  and  we  must  show  our  people, 
that  this  world  is  filled  with  Bethesda  pools  by  which 
men  wait  for  some  one  to  help  them  in. 

When  the  people  (as  we  call  them)  make  their  great 
and  grievous  errors,  we  must  remember  the  shining  face 
upon  the  Cross,  and  hear  above  the  thunder  and  the 
rending  rocks  a  voice,  '^Father,  forgive  them,  for  they 


30  THE  MINISTER  AND  DEMOCRACY 

know  not  what  they  do,"  and  then  we  must  show  them 
this  Christ. 

You  will  find,  if  you  go  out  inspired  by  some  such 
conception  as  this,  that  you  will  need  to  create  in  your 
people  a  very  new  conception  of  the  church  and  the 
ministry.  You  must  show  them  that  you  are  not  there 
just  to  serve  and  run  about  for  them,  but  that  you  and 
they  are  there  together  to  serve  the  world.  They  will 
not  see  this  at  first,  they  will  want  you  to  give  yourself, 
your  time,  and  your  talents,  to  a  great  many  very  small 
things  in  their  behalf.  You  must  give  them  a  larger 
view.  Preach  them  a  sermon,  if  necessary,  upon  the 
"tithing  of  Mint  and  Cummin."  You  may  need  to 
take  the  other  text  about  "the  serving  of  tables." 
Give  them  a  new  vision  of  the  church  of  to-day,  show 
them  the  democratic  environment  in  which  they  live, 
and  that  the  Christian  church  must  correspond  to  this 
environment  if  it  is  to  endure.  You  will  need  to  show 
them  that  the  Christian  church  has  not  been  demo- 
cratic, but  that  it  has  been,  without  meaning  to  be  so, 
aristocratic. 

We  must  thus  change  the  church  from  a  gallery  of 
fine  arts  to  an  asylum;  for  the  weak-minded  in  faith, 
for  those  who  have  fallen  in  moral  weakness,  for  frail 
sinning  men  and  women,  for  the  sick,  the  lame,  the  halt, 
the  blind.  The  deeper  the  need,  the  warmer  and  closer 
must  be  the  fellowship.  We  need  to-day  a  magnificently 
reckless  church,  who  will  not  be  afraid  of  her  reputation, 
even  though  it  may  bring  her  to  the  cross.  He  bore  the 
sins  of  men  in  his  own  body  on  the  tree;  so  it  has  been 


THE  MINISTER  AND  DEMOCRACY  31 

said  of  Christ.  The  church  must  bear  the  sins  of  men 
in  her  own  body,  by  the  side  of  the  cross.  Let  her 
dare  to  give  and  lose  her  life,  for  thus  only,  accord- 
ing to  her  Lord  and  Master,  can  she  save  her  Hfe  by 
losing  it. 

As  a  worldly  newspaper  reporter  said  to  me  a  few 
moments  ago,  the  church  ought  to  be  "a  wide-open 
proposition,"  as  he  put  it. 

I  went  into  a  hospital  the  other  day.  I  witnessed  a 
parable.  A  pale,  weak,  bloodless  man  was  carried  in. 
He  was  not  strong  enough  to  walk.  He  did  not  even 
come  of  his  own  volition.  Following  him  came  a  great, 
strong,  stalwart  man,  glowing  with  health.  They 
brought  them  together.  They  bared  an  arm  of  each 
man.  They  brought  them  into  fellowship  by  a  con- 
ductor which  carried  the  rich  blood  of  the  strong  into 
the  frail  body  of  the  weak.  That  should  be,  at  least, 
the  spirit  of  the  church. 

Abolish,  as  fast  as  you  can,  no  matter  how  cultured 
the  church,  pew-rents,  and  so-called  free  pews.  Gret 
your  church  to  appropriate  for  missions  some  of  the 
money  expended  for  the  expensive  quartette.  Any- 
thing that  is  in  the  way  of  democracy  should  be  hewn 
down. 

The  only  way  the  church  can  save  her  life  is  by  losing 
it.  For  example:  the  other  evening  I  think  we  helped 
save  an  important  situation  by  closing  our  week-night 
prayer-meeting  and  asking  the  men  to  go  to  the  town 
meeting  in  the  interest  of  our  public  schools,  which  are 
perhaps  the  finest  expression  in  the  world  of  a  true 


32  THE  MINISTER  AND  DEMOCRACY 

Christian  democracy  and  a  finer  expression  in  many 
ways  than  the  church  itself. 

One  of  the  great  needs  of  your  church  men  will  be  a 
closer  contact  and  a  larger  personal  allegiance  to  Jesus 
Christ,  a  great  affection  for  him  as  the  sovereign  pos- 
session of  the  human  mind.  Talk  to  them  a  great  deal 
about  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  make  him  become  to  them  the 
sjnnbol  of  a  great  unutterably  noble  life.  Show  them 
how  the  Gospels  glow  with  moral  courage.  Learn  to 
paint  them  vivid  pictures  of  the  splendour  of  the  man- 
hood of  Jesus,  for  you  will  find  that  the  great  trouble 
with  your  men  will  be  the  haunting  fear  of  cowardice. 
Like  the  aged  and  infirm,  they  are  "afraid  of  that 
which  is  high."  Impress  upon  them  the  attractiveness 
of  the  imperial  spirit  of  the  Master.  You  will  find  that 
your  men  will  be  fearful,  even  under  your  bold  leader- 
ship, to  come  out  and  wrestle  like  Christian  warriors 
with  these  great  problems  which  you  have  dared  to  face. 

It  is  perfectly  clear  that  we  can  no  longer  make  dis- 
tinctions between  any  particular  questions  which  the 
church  may  or  may  not  discuss  and  settle.  It  is  plainly 
to  be  seen  that  even  our  pofitical  questions  are  all  moral 
questions  and  that  all  moral  problems  are  at  heart 
religious.  The  modern  minister  is  called  upon  to  wield 
political  influence.  In  part  it  must  be  direct  and  open; 
in  still  larger  part  he  must  do  it  through  his  influence 
upon  the  character  and  actions  of  his  men.  He  must 
train  up,  in  his  church  and  in  his  city,  through  his 
influence,  great  leaders  of  thought  and  action.  He 
must  do  it  by  every  means  —  by  appeal,  by  rebuke, 


THE  MINISTER  AND  DEMOCRACY  33 

by  exhortation,  by  condemnation,  by  persuasion,  by 
every  weapon  or  seduction  at  his  hands.  It  is  a  splen- 
did thing  for  a  man  to  feel  that  he  thus  dominates  the 
political,  the  social,  and  the  civic  life  of  a  city  —  that 
he  is  a  general  commanding  the  very  forces  of  the 
universe. 

This  new  conception  of  the  ministry  calls  for  a  new 
training.  That  training  must  be,  first  of  all,  deeply 
intellectual.  The  modern  minister  must  dominate  the 
minds  of  men  by  his  own  intellectual  power.  But  he 
must  know  men  as  well  as  books.  We  must  have  a 
theological  course  in  human  sympathy.  The  supreme 
need  in  the  ministry  to-day  is  men  who  combine  pro- 
foundly thinking  minds  together  with  great  pulsating 
hearts,  who  know  and  see  and  feel  and  do. 

The  air  of  our  theological  schools  should  be  vibrant 
with  sympathy,  with  burning  hearts.  The  ministry 
needs  men  who  unite  wise  judgment,  sweet  reasonable- 
ness, clear  light,  and  great  unquenchable  passion,  men 
who  both  deeply  think  and  intensely  live.  He  must 
have  a  training  which  fires  him  with  the  great  and 
splendid  sense  of  democracy.  He  must  go  out  as  the 
pastor  of  all  the  people.  It  must  all  be  very  practical. 
He  must  know  not  only  how  to  think  deeply,  but  to 
act  readily  and  masterfully.     He  must  be  a  catalyst. 

I  now  therefore  pass  to  the  question  which  is  raising 
itself  in  your  minds.  How  is  the  minister  to  get  access 
to  all  these  elements  of  democracy?  How  is  he  to  gain 
this  power  over  the  minds,  the  hearts,  and  the  actions 
of  all  these  peoples?    I  will,  therefore,  by  way  of  mere 


34  THE  MINISTER  AND  DEMOCRACY 

suggestion,  throw  out  a  few  hints.  Above  all  things, 
such  a  minister  needs  to  be  (of  course  in  the  higher 
sense  of  the  term)  an  opportunist. 

Is  it  the  important  question  of  gaining  power  over 
foreign-speaking  peoples,  so  that  he,  and  not  the  cheap 
politician,  may  influence  them  in  their  united  action, 
for  their  action  is  and  will  be,  very  largely,  united?  A 
very  few  little  things  will  do  it.  Let  him  learn,  for 
example,  to  conduct  funeral  services,  we  will  say,  in 
German.  It  will  give  him  access  to  the  German  people 
all  over  his  city.  How  those  people  love  to  hear  it  roll 
out:  "In  meines  Vaters  Hause  sind  \dele  Wohnungen." 
How  it  reaches  their  hearts!  He  will  be  kept  busy 
conducting  such  funerals.  He  will  find  at  those  funer- 
als the  German  Singing  Society.  Let  him  give  an 
illustrated  lecture  on  Germany  at  his  church,  and  have 
those  singers  up  there  to  sing  in  the  language  of  the 
fatherland. 

Not  long  ago  I  was  sent  for  to  see  a  sick  and  dying 
man  who  had  great  influence  among  German  people. 
He  was  a  stockholder  in  one  of  our  hat  factories.  I 
am  to-day  acting  as  his  attorney  and  taking  care  of  his 
business  affairs.  He  has  bequeathed  to  me  his  wife 
and  children.  I  simply  throw  these  out  as  suggestions 
of  opportunism. 

Let  the  minister  claim  all  the  men  he  can  get  hold  of 
for  his  parish.  If  you  meet  a  man,  find  out  about  his 
church  relations.  You  will  find  that  he  has  none.  Go 
right  home  and  put  his  name  down  on  your  parish  list 
and  the  next  time  you  send  out  a  pastoral  letter,  send 


THE  MINISTER  AND  DEMOCRACY  35 

him  one  signed  "Your  affectionate  pastor."  This  is  a 
splendid  way  to  get  hold  of  men. 

It  will  be  necessary  to  make  some  enemies  as  well  as 
friends  if  you  stand  for  civic  righteousness,  but  it  is 
very  easy  to  find  ways  of  making  the  friends  so  many 
that  the  enemies  will  count  as  a  cipher. 

Above  all  things,  get  hold  of  men.  Never  mind  so 
much  about  the  women,  you  will  get  them  anyway 
without  trying,  and  at  any  rate  you  will  get  them  if 
you  get  their  husbands  and  brothers.  But  this  is  not 
all,  you  must  get  men  together.  Upon  this,  I  refer  you 
to  our  Men's  Chiistian  Inquiry  Club,  which  gets  together 
every  Sunday  noon  in  our  church.  It  is  composed 
about  as  follows,  as  I  look  over  the  names  of  its  fifty 
members, — merchants,  manufacturers,  corporation  pres- 
idents and  secretaries,  military  men,  retired  men,  archi- 
tects, real  estate  men,  promoters,  doctors,  lawyers, 
judges,  skilled  wage-earners,  unskilled  wage-earners, 
overseers,  bosses,  etc.,  etc.  They  discuss  mainly  eco- 
nomic and  social  questions,  for  these  are  about  the  only 
questions  to-day  upon  which  you  can  get  men  together. 
Our  Roman  Catholic  priest  remarked,  the  other  day, 
that  the  reason  the  Congregational  Church  was  the 
strongest  in  town  was  because  its  men  had  the  faculty 
of  getting  together. 

Get  them  together  in  the  parsonage,  over  coffee,  and 
cigars  (perhaps),  to  talk  things  over.  In  the  parlours 
of  our  home  a  few  evenings  ago,  at  a  little  social  gather- 
ing of  men,  we  had  the  chief  of  police,  a  deputy  sheriff, 
members  of  the  City  Government,  presidents  of  cor- 


36  THE  MINISTER  AND  DEMOCRACY 

porations,  lawyers,  judges,  doctors,  the  head  of  the 
largest  cigar  factory  in  town,  the  secretary  of  the  Cigar 
Makers'  Union,  a  chauffeur,  and  several  large  employers 
of  labour  together  with  both  skilled  and  unskilled  work- 
men. It  is  important  for  a  minister  to  learn  how  to 
mix  men  up  and  to  make  them  mix  up. 

Another  important  matter  is  that  of  accessibility.  I 
confess  that  I  am  more  than  doubtful  about  the  frequent 
custom  of  placing  a  notice  on  the  calendar,  requesting 
people  not  to  come  to  the  parsonage  to  disturb  the 
minister  at  certain  hours.  I  think  he  must  learn  to 
find  time  to  do  his  work  while  at  the  same  time  he  holds 
himself  open  to  any  and  every  call.  I  prefer  a  notice 
something  like  this: 

"The  Pastor  is  always  at  the  service  of  the  people. 
The  Parsonage  is  open  to  any  call,  at  any  time  of  day 
or  night,  when  he  may  render  such  service.  He  will 
respond  to  any  request  of  any  kind.  He  will  call,  upon 
request  or  suggestion,  for  any  purpose  desired.  During 
the  day  and  evening,  when  at  the  parsonage,  he  is  close 
to  the  telephone  and  never  too  busy  to  respond  to  an 
opportunity  to  be  of  service."  Be,  as  my  friend  the 
reporter  put  it,  ''an  open  proposition." 

Take  an  interest  in  men  and  learn  about  their  in- 
terests. For  example,  if  some  business  man  fails  and 
has  to  go  into  bankruptcy,  write  him  a  sjonpathetic 
letter. 

Use  the  newspapers,  and  through  them,  as  well  as 
through  your  pulpit,  be  the  open  champion  of  popular 
and  righteous  democratic  causes.    When  you  invite  the 


THE  MINISTER  AND  DEMOCRACY  37 

president  of  the  factory  to  dinner,  put  one  of  his 
workmen  on  the  other  side  of  the  table.  Do  any- 
thing and  everything  you  can  to  get  hold  of  men 
and  movements. 

In  almost  every  community  you  will  find  a  population 
of  various  foreign  peoples.  Get  among  them,  talk  to 
them  about  citizenship,  learn  their  customs  and  ways 
of  doing  things  and  conform  to  them.  If,  for  example, 
you  go  to  a  gathering  of  Swedish  people  to  talk  to 
them  about  the  obligations  and  the  opportunities  of 
American  citizenship,  they  will  hear  you  with  much 
more  sympathetic  interest  if  you  have  learned  enough 
Swedish  to  join  with  them  in  the  singing  of  the  Swedish 
national  air  which  precedes  your  address.  Say  a  good 
word  for  the  Jews.    Get  in  touch  with  the  black  men. 

Use  your  pulpit  to  give  appreciations  of  the  work  of 
the  various  servants  of  human  society.  Take  Hospital 
Sunday,  for  example,  to  speak  of  physicians  and  nurses 
in  ideal  terms  as  the  ministers  of  Christ. 

Invite  the  graduating  classes  of  the  public  schools  to 
come  to  your  church  the  Sunday  before  graduation  and 
preach  them  an  annual  sermon.  One  very  effective 
key  to  democracy  will  be  through  the  public  school 
teachers.  Attend  the  gatherings  of  their  association 
and  talk  to  them  frequently  about  their  ideals  and 
moral  opportunities.  Take  up  such  work  as  the  artistic 
decoration  of  the  school  buildings. 

Father  such  institutions  as  the  Grand  Army  of  the 
Republic.  Help  them  in  the  observance  of  Memorial 
Day.    Go  with  them  and  help  them  to  decorate  a  few 


38  THE  MINISTER  AND  DEMOCRACY 

graves,  in  the  heavy  rain,  it  may  be.  Drop  in  on  the 
firemen  and  policemen  once  in  awhile. 

Do  not  forget  ^'the  other  half."  Keep  in  close  and 
sympathetic  touch  with  the  Rescue  Mission  in  your 
city.  Go  down  occasionally  and  spend  an  evening  with 
the  poor  fellows  whose  only  home  it  is.  Keep  in  asso- 
ciation with  the  Salvation  Army. 

Besides  using  your  pulpit  through  sermons,  use  it 
through  the  prayer.  Pray  for  men  openly;  for  your 
city  judges,  that  they  may  judge  in  righteousness;  for 
your  lawyers  that  they  shall  uphold  the  truth.  Pray 
not  only  for  the  President  of  the  United  States,  but 
also  for  the  mayor  of  your  city.  Remember  the  police- 
men as  the  protectors  of  human  life  and  interest,  and  the 
firemen  who  risk  danger  for  the  sake  of  their  fellowmen. 

Remember  in  your  prayers  those  who  work  in  the 
factories  and  stores.  Pray  for  employers  that  they  may 
be  considerate  and  generous,  and  for  the  labour  unions 
that  they  may  be  faithful  and  just.  At  least,  on  some 
Sunday  morning  during  the  year,  each  of  these  elements 
of  human  society  ought  to  be  openly  prayed  for.  At 
Christmas  time  you  might  gather  them  all  up  into  one 
prayer  and  it  will  do  no  harm  if  it  is  printed  in  the 
Christmas  morning  edition  of  the  daily  paper.  You 
may  find  that  the  firemen,  for  example,  will  gather  in 
their  rooms  on  Christmas  morning  and  have  their  chief 
read  it  to  them.  I  have  known  such  things  to  happen. 
As  you  go  about  among  the  homes  of  people  you  may 
find  it  mounted  upon  cardboard  and  hanging  upon  their 
walls. 


THE  MINISTER  AND  DEMOCRACY  39 

These  are  only  casual  suggestions.  Find  these  and 
any  other  ways  of  gaining  the  moral  confidence  of  the 
democratic  order  through  your  open  expressions  of  sym- 
pathy and  affection.  These  are  the  ways  to  get  access 
to  democracy. 

All  this  is  preparatory  to  other  great  and  important 
influence.  It  will  give  you  power  and  votes  when  you 
are  called  upon  to  participate  in  political  Hfe  and  civic 
reform.  As  society  is  constituted  to-day  you  will  be 
almost  a  cipher  in  the  moving  and  the  moulding  of  the 
moral  social  order,  unless  you  become  a  vital  factor  in 
the  background  of  political  life.  There  is  little  use 
in  a  minister  attempting  the  work  of  civic  reform 
unless  he  first  gains  a  powerful  influence  over  masses 
of  men. 

With  this  backing  you  may  also  be  a  great  inspira- 
tional force  in  municipal  betterment.  You  will  be  able 
to  improve  the  appearance  of  your  city;  to  institute 
many  movements  for  making  your  city  beautiful.  You 
ought  to  be  able  to  successfully  contest  for  this  influence 
with  the  cheap  political  boss,  and  not  let  him  run  the 
city. 

I  have  set  before  you  what  I  believe  to  be  a  large  aim 
and  opportunity.  It  is  really  a  recurrence  in  one  sense 
to  the  old  idea  of  the  ministry  which  prevailed  in  the 
earlier  days  of  New  England.  In  those  days  the  min- 
ister and  his  church  dominated  the  public  life.  In 
these  latter  days  most  of  this  authority  has  been  tem- 
porarily relinquished,  but  we  must  gain  it  again. 

There  is,  however,  this  essential  difference:  in  those 


40  THE  MINISTER  AND  DEMOCRACY 

early  days  it  was  a  certain  reverence  for  outward  author- 
ity; it  was  a  certain  institutional  power;  there  was  a 
touch  of  superstition  in  it;  the  minister  was  heeded  often- 
times simply  because  he  was  the  minister.  That  sort  of 
authority  will  never  be  regained  and  never  should  be 
recovered.  But  I  am  calling  you  to  exercise  an  infi- 
nitely higher  authority.  It  is  that  of  intellectual,  moral, 
and  spiritual  power.    It  is  that  of  personal  character. 

Therefore  I  urge  upon  you  this  large  and  compre- 
hensive conception  of  the  ministry.  You  are  to  become, 
and  you  are  to  make  your  church  become,  the  mover 
and  the  moulder  of  the  entire  social  and  democratic 
order.  In  your  hands  the  Master  has  placed  the  keys 
to  the  solution  of  the  great  industrial  problems  of  our 
time.  It  is  your  business  to  bring  the  employer  and 
the  employed  together  in  the  name  and  spirit  of  the 
Master.  You  are  not  to  leave  political  life  to  be  domi- 
nated by  wretched  selfish  demagogues.  You  are  to 
contest  political  leadership  with  them. 

It  is  not  simply  your  business  to  gather  a  little  eclectic 
group  of  saints  within  the  church  that  you  may  minister 
to  them.  It  is  your  holy  task  to  make  of  your  whole 
city  a  new  Jerusalem  descending  out  of  heaven.  You 
are  also  to  give  these  moral  and  spiritual  institutions, 
after  you  have  made  them  moral  and  spiritual,  a  beau- 
tiful physical  habitation.  The  city  which  you  are  to 
make  glorious  in  its  inner  life  must  also  be  made  beauti- 
ful in  its  physical  body. 

In  order  to  accomplish  these  great  ends  you  must 
absolutely  give  yourself  to  everything  and  everybody. 


THE  MINISTER  AND  DEMOCRACY  41 

Without  for  one  moment  lowering  the  dignity  of  your 
high  calling,  you  must  be  a  thoroughly  democratic  man. 
You  are  to  find  some  point  of  contact  with  every  element 
of  the  life  of  your  community. 

I  was  very  much  pleased  the  other  day  when  I  was 
asked  to  go  down  and  give  a  few  words  of  counsel  and 
advice  to  the  Hat  Trinmiers'  Union  of  over  three  hun- 
dred working  women.  When  I  told  the  secretary  that 
I  would  come  she  said,  "When  this  question  was  raised 
one  of  our  members,  a  Roman  Catholic,  asked  the 
question,  'Do  you  suppose  he  will  come?'  and  one  of 
the  members  spoke  up  and  said,  'Yes,  he  mil  do  any- 
thing you  ask  him  to  do  J"  I  was  equally  pleased  on 
being  introduced  to  that  meeting  to  have  the  president 
introduce  me  as  ''our  pastor." 

Thus,  and  thus  only,  will  you  fulfil  the  larger  vision 
of  the  Master.  It  is  to  be  remembered  that  he  never 
once  mentioned  the  Church.  He  always  talked  about 
the  Kingdom.  I  have  been  trying  to  give  you  some 
glimpses  of  the  modern  ministry  of  the  Kingdom,  our 
field  as  the  world,  our  parish  as  our  town  or  city. 

I  must  stop  to  remind  you  again,  that,  first  of  all,  you 
must  become  a  strong  preacher  and  pastor  in  your  own 
church.  You  cannot  do  this  larger  work  until  you  have 
mastered  your  own  church,  and  then,  too,  I  have  been 
reminding  you  all  along  that  this  is  reactionary.  All 
this  work  that  you  do  outside  reacts  upon  and  greatly 
strengthens  your  own  church.  This  is  especially  true 
when  you  carry  your  own  people  into  these  things  with 
you.    The  field  is  white  for  harvest  while  the  labourers, 


42  THE  MINISTER  AND  DEMOCRACY 

the  men  who  have  grasped  this  conception  of  the  min- 
istry, are  few. 

The  Master  is  calling  to  this  church  of  his,  which,  in 
these  latter  days,  has  been  toiling  night  after  night  and 
taking  very  little,  "Launch  out  into  the  deep  and  let 
down  your  nets."  He  wants  us  to  continue  unselfishly 
until  it  be  that  the  kingdoms  of  this  world  are  become 
kingdoms  of  our  Lord  and  of  his  Christ. 

I  have  dared  to  set  before  you  a  large  task  because  I 
believe  that  the  broad  and  generous  spirit  of  this  Divinity 
School  is  calculated  to  make  men  of  large  mould  with  the 
loftiest  of  ideals. 

Do  you  see  the  point?  If  the  minister  is  to  have  a 
large  influence  in  the  realization,  the  making,  and  the 
moralizing  of  our  democracy  he  must  get  his  points  of 
contact.  He  must  have  electric  wires  extending  out 
all  through  the  community.  He  must  be  able  to  press 
the  button  at  the  parsonage  and  make  things  happen 
at  his  will.  Get  power,  political,  civic,  social,  any  kind. 
Get  influence,  with  the  judges  on  the  bench,  the  teachers 
in  the  schools,  with  anybody  and  with  everybody,  in  a 
true  and  splendid  sense,  "the  power  of  the  keys." 

Thus  only  may  we  become  to  mankind  the  inter- 
preters of  its  own  life,  in  the  light  of  moral  and  spiritual 
vision.  The  order  is,  first,  the  gaining  of  the  good-will 
and  moral  confidence  of  men,  and  of  men  in  large  groups 
and  societies.  Then  out  of  this  we  must  gain  our  power 
over  them.  Then,  and  thus  only,  shall  we  be  able  to 
interpret  for  them  their  own  best  impulses,  and  we  may 
do  it  so  that  even  the  man  with  the  muck-rake  may 


OF   THE  1^ 

UNIVERSITY  j 

THE  MINISTER  AND  DEMOCRACY  43 

learn  to  look  up  and  see  the  celestial  crown  of  his  diviner 
meaning. 

My  brethren,  it  is  no  small  work  to  which  you  are 
called.  It  is  not  simply  to  serve  a  church,  to  preach  a 
gospel,  it  is  to  make  that  church  and  that  gospel  effect- 
ive, it  is  the  development  of  something  that  is  infinitely 
larger  than  the  church.  Our  task  is  to  transform 
democracy  into  the  Kingdom  of  God  and  nothing  less 
than  this  should  be  the  aim  and  the  ideal  of  the  modern 
minister.  And  they  are  wrong  who  say,  so  flippantly, 
that  the  day  of  our  authority  has  gone.  It  is  before  us 
if  we  will  only  find  its  way. 

Our  field  is  the  world,  our  parish  is  our  town  or  city, 
our  people  are  the  people.  And  this  field  is  white  for 
harvest,  while  the  labourers  are  few,  and  I  am  pra5dng 
the  Lord  of  the  harvest  that  he  may  send  you  forth. 


TRADE  UNIONS:  THE  CAUSES  FOR  THEIR 
EXISTENCE 

BY 

Henky  Sterling 

Mr.  Sterling  J  of  Medford,  Massachusetts,  is  a  compos- 
itor on  ^^The  Boston  Daily  Globe  J'  He  was  formerly  the 
Secretary  of  Typographical  Union  No.  13,  of  Boston,  and 
has  been  long  known  as  a  wise  and  loyal  labour  leader.  He 
has  served  on  the  Board  of  Aldermen  in  his  city  and  in 
many  other  positions  of  trust  and  responsibility. 


TRADE  UNIONS:  THE  CAUSES  FOR  THEIR 
EXISTENCE 

DR.  MACFARLAND  has  asked  me  to  tell  you 
how  you  may  help  in  the  realization  of  the  higher 
ideals  of  organized  industry.  My  first  answer  would  be 
to  ask  ministers  of  the  Gospel  to  learn  and  know  the 
inside  history  of  union  labour,  and  the  actual  conditions 
under  which  wage-earners  live  and  work.  I  think  too 
few  of  them  know  much  about  these  things. 

One  of  the  most  striking  things  in  the  industrial  world 
is  the  number  of  men  out  of  work.  At  any  time,  in 
any  place,  large  nimibers  are  suffering  enforced  idle- 
ness. Any  sort  of  a  job,  at  any  kind  of  wages,  will  find 
any  number  of  takers.  The  misery,  want,  and  demor- 
alization that  result  from  this  condition  are  appalling. 
No  agony  is  so  acute,  no  anxiety  so  intense,  as  that  of 
the  penniless  man  out  of  work  with  a  family  dependent 
upon  him.  It  blasts  hope,  ambition,  aspiration.  It 
destroys  the  moral  sense  and  paralyzes  the  intellectual 
powers.  Its  victim  becomes  incapable  of  mental  exer- 
tion or  moral  aspiration.  Manliness  is  undermined,  and 
the  wretch  vainly  seeking  a  job  becomes  an  abject, 
cringing,  shrinking  creature,  submissive  to  any  indig- 
nity, any  oppression  or  extortion,  if  only  it  will  bring 
him  the  means  to  live.  The  courage  and  enterprise 
that  might  enable  him  to  strike  out  for  himself  are  lost; 

47 


48  THE  CAUSES  FOR  TRADE  UNIONS 

it  is  useless  to  try  new  lines  of  work,  for  all  are  over- 
crowded; and  if  there  is  no  room  for  him  in  the  calling 
in  which  he  has  some  skill,  what  chance  has  he  in  the 
calling  in  which  he  has  none? 

Millions  endure  this  agony  daily.  Statistics  are  not 
available,  as  the  personnel  of  the  out-of-works  is  con- 
stantly changing,  yet  it  is  safe  to  say  that  not  less  than 
one  twentieth  of  the  workers  are  constantly  out  of 
emplo5Tiient.  In  periods  of  depression  the  proportion 
is  greater. 

For  their  woe  there  is  no  alleviation,  no  redress. 
Statesmen,  churchmen,  philanthropists,  economists,  — 
all  turn  from  them.  Charity  alone  doles  out  a  sop  to 
save  them  from  starvation.  They  ask  the  highest 
political  authority  in  the  land  what  to  do,  and  receive 
for  a  reply,  "God  only  knows." 

This  horror  is  needless.  It  is  the  primary  and  para- 
mount crime  of  society  against  the  workers,  for  there 
are  abundant  opportunities  for  labour,  for  all,  in  this  and 
every  land.  The  soil  is  the  source  of  all  emplojnnent 
of  every  kind.  Until  every  foot  of  it  has  been  put  to 
its  utmost  intensive  use,  there  is  no  righteous  excuse 
for  involuntary  idleness.  Mines  by  the  thousand  are 
unopened;  fields  by  the  million  are  unbroken;  above 
all,  city  lots  without  number  —  opportunities  unlimited 
for  stores,  factories,  homes  —  lie  untouched,  naked,  and 
useless,  a  shame  to  us  and  our  civilization,  while  the 
crowded  slums  fester,  and  idle  men  walk  the  streets  in 
despair.  Every  city  shows  more  of  its  area  idle  than 
used. 


THE  CAUSES  FOR  TRADE  UNIONS  49 

It  is  not  for  lack  of  opportunity  to  labour  that  men 
are  idle.  Nature  is  no  niggard.  God  has  provided  for 
us  an  abundance  of  material  blessings. 

Plainly,  our  first  great  crime  against  humanity  is  our 
system  of  tenure  of  land,  which  restricts,  abridges,  and 
denies  to  men  the  chance  to  work.  The  man  out  of 
work  is  a  guest  as  at  a  feast  spread  by  the  Father  of  all, 
yet  by  his  fellow-guests  denied  an  opportunity  to  satisfy 
his  necessities.  His  sufferings,  anxiety,  misery,  and 
degradation  are  needless  and  uncalled  for,  and  are  not 
to  be  blamed  upon  God,  who  has  plentifully  provided 
for  all.  Rather  we,  his  creatures,  are  to  blame,  having 
intervened  with  pernicious  laws  between  labour  and  its 
opportunity,  and  separated  the  creature  from  the 
bounties  of  his  Creator. 

But  the  evils  that  flow  from  non-employment  do  not 
stop  with  those  who  are  idle;  they  extend  themselves 
to  all  who  work.  Low  wages  for  all  are  the  direct 
result  of  the  enforced  idleness  of  some.  The  com- 
petition for  jobs  drives  the  pay  to  a  point  below  the 
demands  of  justice,  below  the  demands  of  physical 
necessity.  Higher  joys  are  out  of  the  question,  or  are 
pinched  from  the  necessities  of  the  physical.  It  is 
only  when  men  break  away  from  manual  labour  early 
in  life  that  there  is  any  hope  of  mental  growth  or 
intellectual  attainments.  The  mass  of  working  men 
are  little  better  than  mere  machines,  to  be  used  or 
discarded  as  profit  or  inclination  dictates. 

Then,  the  fear  of  idleness  makes  men  submit  to 
brutally  long  days  of  labour.    A  mistake  has  arisen 


50  THE  CAUSES  FOR  TRADE  UNIONS 

from  lack  of  apprehension  of  the  difference  between 
work  and  labour.  Work  is  ever  a  joy  to  the  normal 
man,  but  labour  is  always  a  burden.  To  accomplish 
some  desirable  thing  by  mental  or  physical  exertion 
is  pleasurable  work,  which  should  better  the  whole 
man  and  add  to  his  happiness;  but  to  drudge  unceas- 
ingly at  a  toilsome  task,  hour  after  hour,  day  after 
day,  year  in  and  year  out,  to  the  point  of  physical 
exhaustion,  without  pleasure  in  it,  without  proj&t 
pecuniary  or  otherwise,  without  relaxation  or  hope  of 
release  except  in  death  —  indeed,  release  would  bring 
the  greater  ills  of  idleness  and  want  —  with  no  oppor- 
tunity for  the  exercise  of  any  faculty  other  than  the 
one  employed  on  a  wearying  task  —  this  is  labour. 
We  recognize  the  difference  in  common  speech.  Of  a 
plan,  or  a  machine,  or  a  system,  we  say  it  works  well; 
of  a  ship  in  distress,  in  danger  of  destruction,  we  say 
she  labours.  The  difference  between  work  and  labour 
is  the  difference  between  pleasure  and  toil. 

Low  wages,  and  fear  of  idleness  and  want,  drive  men 
to  long  hours  of  labour  that  exhaust  them  physically, 
morally,  and  spiritually.  Again,  fear  of  losing  a  job 
induces  a  species  of  servility,  a  submission  to  petty 
tyranny  and  exactions,  that  is  wholly  foreign  to  a 
manly  spirit.  Ready,  prompt,  cheerful  obedience  to 
proper  orders  is  a  virtue  that  becomes  a  man,  but 
he  whose  necessities  compel  submission  to  indignity 
and  imposition  is  a  pitiable  object  indeed.  Men  take 
much  pride  in  calling  non-union  men  free  and  independ- 
ent, but  for  workmen  there  is  little  if  any  approach 


THE  CAUSES  FOR  TRADE  UNIONS  51 

to  freedom  or  independence  in  any  other  than  a 
union  shop,  and  frequently  not  as  much  there  as  there 
should  be. 

One  other  great  and  bitter  wrong  remains  to  be  noted 
—  society  seems  to  be  in  a  conspiracy  to  pilfer  from  the 
labourer  as  much  as  possible  of  the  meagre  wage  he 
receives.  No  one  holds  land  that  he  himself  is  not 
using  except  for  the  purpose  of  getting  wealth  without 
work;  interest  money  and  dividends  are  unearned  by 
the  receiver;  profits  from  artificial  and  other  monopolies 
are  incalculable;  tariff  and  patent  laws  seem  specifically 
designed  to  allow  easy  methods  of  creating  monopolies 
to  force  tribute  from  industry  to  idleness;  ground  rents, 
interest,  dividends,  and  monopoly  profits  are  all  ab- 
stracted from  the  workers.  No  other  source  exists  from 
which  they  can  be  drawn.  Wealth  is  not  a  spontaneous 
growth,  nor  is  it  produced  by  magic,  or  sleight  of  hand, 
but  only  by  labour  applied  to  land.  Every  dollar  not 
earned  by  useful  work  is  taken  from  the  wages  of  those 
who  toil. 

John  Wanamaker,  in  an  official  statement  made 
when  he  was  Postmaster  General,  showed  that  "an 
investment  of  $1,000  in  1858  in  Western  Union  stock 
would  have  received,  up  to  1890,  stock  dividends  of 
more  than  $50,000  and  cash  dividends  of  more  than 
$100,000." 

Nearly  every  item  of  necessity,  of  food,  clothing, 
shelter,  heat,  fight,  transportation,  and  communication  is 
enhanced  in  price  by  the  extortions  of  monopoly.  Great 
fortunes  are  built  by  picking  the  pockets  of  the  poor. 


62  THE  CAUSES  FOR  TRADE  UNIONS 

Not  less  than  a  quarter  of  the  meagre  sum  the  wage- 
earner  receives  is  yielded  as  a  tribute  to  the  exactions 
of  monopoly. 

These  are  not  fanciful  pictures  or  rhetorical  exag- 
gerations, but  the  bare,  cold  facts  of  our  civiHzation. 
We  create  an  artificial  scarcity  of  opportunity  of  work. 
The  resulting  competition  for  jobs  lowers  wages  below 
decent  living  conditions,  and  uncertainty  of  employ- 
ment demoralizes  all  classes  of  labour.  Lastly,  we  allow 
monopoly  to  filch  away  a  large  proportion  of  the  pitiful 
wages  paid. 

The  race  has  outgrown  many  superstitions,  and  among 
them  is  the  belief  that  God  gives  to  one  man  riches  and 
another  poverty.  God's  bounty  has  provided  plenti- 
fully for  all.  By  cunning,  greed,  extortion,  and  hard- 
ness of  heart  riches  are  drawn  from  the  labour  of  others. 
What  a  picture  of  blasphemy  is  presented  by  the  man 
who  not  only  shuts  his  heart  to  the  needs  of  his  fellows, 
but  plunges  them  into  deeper  distress  by  using  his  God- 
given  talents  to  wring  from  them  every  penny  that 
monopoly  can  extort,  and  then  ascribes  his  wealth  to 
the  favour  of  Divine  Providence!  The  public  announce- 
ment of  such  doctrine  now  covers  its  advocate  with 
contempt. 

Not  one  of  the  leading  institutions  intelligently  con- 
demns these  deep,  far-reaching,  fimdamental,  demoral- 
izing wrongs.  Press,  pulpit,  and  party  ignore  them. 
Presidents,  preachers,  professors,  politicians,  and  leaders 
of  labour  all  discuss  what  they  call  the  labour  problem, 
but  none  state  what  it  is,  or  define  or  analyze  it,  or 


THE  CAUSES  FOR  TRADE  UNIONS  53 

make  any  allusion  to  these  three  obvious  iniquities 
which  create  it. 

Yet  the  existence  of  these  three  artificial  wrongs  — 
scarcity  of  employment,  low  wages,  monopoly  extor- 
tions—  is  responsible  for  the  existence,  not  only  of 
trade  unions,  but  of  all  the  other  striking  social  phe- 
nomena that  distress  and  perplex  us.  That  deep 
poverty  which  breeds  ignorance,  vice,  brutality,  crime, 
degradation,  is  the  direct  outgrowth  of  these  wrongs, 
which  we  ourselves  have  created.  Consumption  is  one 
of  the  punishments  of  poverty.  Intemperance,  with  all 
its  misery,  is  another  of  its  baneful  fruits.  People  are 
not  poor  because  they  drink,  but  rather  they  drink 
because  they  are  poor. 

Contemplate  the  awful  results  of  this  trinity  of  wrongs! 
Vast  masses  of  humanity  are  kept  perpetually  without 
the  material  means  or  possibility  of  anything  above  a 
mere  animal  existence,  without  enough  at  any  time  to 
satisfy  reasonable  physical  needs;  woman  labour,  with  its 
robbery  of  unborn  generations,  and  child  labour  with  its 
pitiful  horrors;  death's  ghastly  harvest  among  the  babes 
of  the  poor;  the  meagre,  starved  childhood;  the  toiling, 
suffering  manhood;  the  shortening  of  the  narrowed  life 
—  these  are  fruits  of  lack  of  work,  low  wages,  and  private 
monopoly.  The  joy  of  work  and  of  Hfe  depart;  art, 
science,  Uterature,  to  the  working  poor  are  dead;  home 
is  but  a  name;  education  and  culture  are  unknown. 
Long  hours  of  toil,  exhausted  energy  and  meagre  reward 
destroy  vitaHty,  hope,  and  aspiration,  and  make  a  higher 
life  impossible.    A  few  of  exceptional  endowment,  with 


54  THE  CAUSES  FOR  TRADE  UNIONS 

good  fortune  and  determination,  have  overcome  and 
risen  above  adverse  conditions;  but  the  masses  die  on 
the  plane  on  which  they  were  born. 

Wages  largely  measure  intelhgence,  elevation,  civil- 
ization. The  country  with  the  highest  level  of  wages 
has  the  highest  degree  of  happiness  and  the  highest 
standard  of  citizenship,  and  the  peoples  of  the  lands  with 
low  wages  are  abject  in  their  misery,  degradation,  and 
serviUty.  The  employment  of  the  unemployed,  the 
elevation  of  wages,  and  the  destruction  of  private  mon- 
opoly should  be  the  first  thought  of  statesmen.  Chris- 
tians, philanthropists,  labour  men  —  of  all  who  desire 
progress,  who  love  their  fellows,  and  who  long  for  a 
higher,  cleaner,  more  just  civilization. 

He  who  depresses  wages  or  makes  the  conditions  of 
labour  harder  and  the  hours  longer  is  an  enemy  to  hu- 
manity, who  for  selfish  ends  robs  little  children,  defiles 
and  degrades  woman,  and  debases  man.  Instead  of 
love,  he  sows  hatred,  distrust,  and  dishonesty;  instead 
of  lightening  loads  and  relieving  distress,  he  deepens 
the  misery  and  adds  to  the  burdens  of  those  who  have 
already  more  than  they  can  bear. 

These  ills  are  enough  to  create  and  justify  trade 
unions.  Indeed,  men  are  not  rational  who  fail  to 
imite  against  wrong.  The  labour  movement  is  a  protest 
against  evil  conditions  and  the  expression  of  aspira- 
tion for  a  higher  life.  It  is  the  embodiment  of  the 
labourer's  desire  and  hope  for  better  conditions  and 
environment  for  those  who  follow  him,  even  though 
he  himself  may  not  attain  to  them.     The  strength 


THE  CAUSES  FOR  TRADE  UNIONS  55 

of  the  labour  movement   is  the   pledge  of   a  nobler 
civilization. 

Not  that  the  imions  have  attained  any  deep  insight 
into  the  causes  of  labour's  ills,  or  their  cure.  They  have 
not.  Their  vision  is  short,  their  efforts  —  noble,  self- 
sacrificing,  partially  effective  —  are  largely  misdirected. 
The  whole  force  of  the  union  attack  is  against  low 
wages,  long  hours,  and  bad  labour  conditions.  The  fact 
that  the  non-employment  of  some  is  the  immediate 
cause  of  these  ills  is  never  noted.  Feeling  that  they  are 
justly  entitled  to  a  larger  return  for  their  labour,  the 
union  seeks  to  unite  all  the  workers  in  each  industry 
in  a  demand  for  higher  wages.  It  sets  a  minimum 
wage,  and  urges  all  to  refuse  to  work  for  less.  It  fixes 
a  maximum  length  of  day,  and  urges  that  none  work 
more.  It  holds  conferences  with  employers,  urges  the 
justice  and  benefits  of  its  demands,  and  finally  a  strike 
is  ordered.  But  all  the  while  the  fact  that  the  market 
is  glutted  with  idle  labour  is  wholly  ignored.  Workmen 
hungering  for  a  job  are  plentiful.  The  employer  has 
but  to  suffer  the  inconvenience  of  a  change  in  the  work- 
ing force,  and  the  workman  who  sought  a  gain  has  lost 
all.  Frequently  the  employer  is  a  gainer  by  the  strike, 
for  the  newcomers  will  generally  submit  to  a  further 
reduction.  The  men  who  took  the  places  of  the  strikers 
are  bitterly  denounced,  but  whatever  caused  their  idle- 
ness defeated  the  strike.  Not  imtil  the  union  has  fully 
considered  the  man  out  of  work  and  the  cause  for  his 
lack  of  employment  will  strikes  be  as  effective  as  their 
promoters  hope. 


56  THE  CAUSES  FOR  TRADE  UNIONS 

When  all  have  equal  share  in  and  equal  access  to  the 
soil,  the  gift  of  God,  idle  labour,  idle  lands,  low  wages, 
and  the  "worthy  poor,"  will  disappear  —  and  not  till 
then. 

But  above  all  else,  we  need  a  sufficient  enlightenment 
of  conscience  to  realize  that  to  gain  wealth  without 
work  is  to  steal  it  from  the  worker.  And  we  need  to 
see  that  we  ourselves  are  as  guilty  as  the  ones  who 
benefit  by  the  theft.  Had  the  Good  Samaritan  and  the 
priest  and  the  Levite  watched  without  protest  the  rob- 
bery of  the  victim,  —  they  would  have  done  exactly 
what  we  are  doing  to-day.  We  need  no  fanciful  or 
Utopian  scheme  to  overcome  the  wretchedness  of  pov- 
erty, with  all  its  concomitant  vices.  We  need  only 
justice,  to  do  as  we  would  be  done  by.  The  point  to 
keep  in  view  is  that  it  is  caused  by  involuntary  idleness, 
low  wages,  and  the  extortions  of  private  monopofies. 
Involuntary  idleness  is  needless,  and  if  abohshed  other 
reforms  would  follow. 

Here  is  the  remedy  offered  by  organized  labour  for 
wrong  social  conditions:  Unite  for  better  wages  and 
hours  and  working  conditions.  The  first  part,  organ- 
ization, is  not  only  rational  and  commendable,  but  evil 
conditions  never  can  be  overcome  unless  men  unite  and 
act  together  against  them.  The  second  part,  better 
wages,  hours,  and  conditions,  can  never  be  obtained 
completely  while  the  cause  of  low  wages  and  bad  con- 
ditions —  that  is,  enforced  idleness  —  remains. 

Now  this  remedy  is  so  short-sighted  as  to  be  pitiful. 
It  promises  no  end  whatever  to  the  struggle.     Indeed, 


THE  CAUSES  FOR  TRADE  UNIONS  57 

leading  labour  men  at  times  express  themselves  as  seeing 
no  prospect  but  that  labour  troubles,  more  or  less  acute, 
must  continue  on  and  on  indefinitely.  There  is  no 
promise  that  evil  industrial  conditions  will  be  finally 
abolished  by  the  tremendous  sacrifices  being  made  along 
the  lines  now  pursued. 

But  the  remedy  of  the  trade  unions  has  the  merit  of 
being  of  practical  value.  Their  efforts  do  relieve  con- 
ditions and  make  life  more  tolerable  for  milhons,  while 
the  remedies  offered  by  the  accepted  authorities  of 
society  are  not  only  useless,  but  if  generally  applied 
would  be  positively  injurious  and  aggravate  the  suffer- 
ings now  undergone  by  the  poor.  Consider  them: 
Greater  diligence,  Greater  thrift. 

Now  of  what  avail  is  it  to  urge  men  who  are  already 
overworked,  who  break  down  and  become  old  before 
their  time,  to  more  strenuous  endeavoin*?  Of  course 
individuals  of  unusual  ability  or  endurance  may  benefit 
therefrom  by  extra  exertion;  but  if  all  could  and  should 
follow  the  same  course,  none  would  be  benefited.  The 
output  might  be  greater,  but  wages  would  not  rise,  for 
they  depend  on  the  amount  of  idle  labour  available.  It 
is  as  if  persons  in  a  race  were  told  that  they  would  win 
by  increased  effort;  one  might,  but  the  heart-breaking 
pace  would  in  no  wise  benefit  his  competitors,  and  must 
soon  break  him  down.  To  urge  more  strenuous  effort 
is  simply  to  set  up  a  more  bitter  competition  as  to  who 
can  do  the  most  for  httle  pay,  when  all  are  overworked 
and  underpaid  already.  It  is  to  break  down  the  less 
efficient  still  earlier,  without  any  probability  of  any 


58  THE  CAUSES  FOR  TRADE  UNIONS 

benefit  to  come  to  labour.  For  wages  constantly  tend 
to  the  lowest  point  at  which  labourers  will  consent  to 
subsist,  and  any  increase  of  product  created  by  extra 
effort  or  efficiency  would  only  further  enrich  those  who 
now  enjoy  the  products  of  labour  without  working  for 
them. 

Greater  thrift  would  be  still  more  cruel  and  disastrous. 
With  less  than  enough  for  actual  needs,  excluded  by 
lack  of  means  from  the  elevating  influences  of  education, 
literatiu*e,  art,  music,  drama,  science,  the  labourer  is 
glibly  told  to  save  always  some  portion  of  his  pitiful 
ten  dollars  or  less  per  week.  No  matter  if  the  children 
need  better  food,  and  clothing,  and  shelter,  and  educa- 
tion, which  the  meagre  wage  will  not  possibly  buy  — 
save.  Whatever  the  privations  and  sacrifices  and 
meagreness  and  narrowness  of  the  life  of  the  overworked 
wife  and  mother  —  save.  And  if  the  poor  man  is  for- 
tunate enough  to  escape  sickness,  and  accident,  and 
bereavement,  and  the  financial  sharks  that  beset  such 
as  he,  he  may  have  a  pittance  left  for  old  age  —  if  he 
reaches  old  age. 

Not  such  is  Christ's  advice,  ''Take  no  thought  for  the 
morrow,"  "Lay  not  up  for  yourselves  treasures."  There 
is  a  deeper  economic  philosophy  in  those  injunctions 
than  is  often  thought.  Men  in  high  stations,  with 
comfortable  incomes,  should  be  exceedingly  cautious 
how  they  advise  the  lowly  to  save.  Not  that  the  com- 
mon people  will  invite  disaster  by  adopting  such  a 
course:  their  common  sense  and  necessities  make  that 
impossible;  but  the  advice  reflects  on  the  intelligence  of 


THE  CAUSES  FOR  TRADE  UNIONS     59 

the  adviser.  Thrift  may  elevate  a  few  financially  at 
the  expense  of  others.  It  would  ruin  the  race  if  uni- 
versally applied. 

Cooperation  has  been  recommended.  But  we  co- 
operate now,  to  the  fullest  extent,  in  manufacturing  and 
handling  goods.  It  takes  the  work  of  hundreds  of  per- 
sons to  make  the  simplest  article.  The  difficulty  lies  in 
the  division  of  the  product.  Some  get  much  for  doing 
little  or  nothing  while  some  receive  little  —  very  little 
—  for  doing  all. 

Better  wages,  hours,  and  labour  conditions  are  the 
things  essential  for  a  better  civilization.  The  union 
makes  no  mistake  when  it  demands  them.  The  error 
is  that  it  fails  to  consider  the  cause  of  low  wages  —  idle 
labour  —  and  remedy  that. 

The  trade  union,  seeking  higher  wages  for  its  mem- 
bers, finds  its  first  foe  in  the  employer.  But  he  is  not 
the  real  opponent.  The  employer  may  fight  the  battle, 
but  the  whole  social  body  is  against  the  labourer.  It 
has  always  hated  the  taint  of  manual  labour,  and  has 
always  held  the  labourer  in  one  or  another  form  of 
subjection. 

Charity  may  freely  flow,  and  sympathy  for  the 
"worthy"  poor  is  abundant:  but  the  imworthy  poor 
have  most  need  of  sympathy  and  love,  and  the  existence 
of  "worthy"  poor  is  simply  a  proof  of  social  injustice. 
But  society  resents  the  presumption  of  a  demand  for 
higher  wages,  or  better  working  hours  or  conditions, 
while  the  imion  insists  that  these  are  the  vital  points. 
Philanthropy  and  an  awakening  pubUc  conscience  may 


60  THE  CAUSES  FOR  TRADE  UNIONS 

multiply  educational  facilities,  but  of  what  avail  are 
they  to  the  man  worn  down  by  long  hours  of  physical 
labour,  without  time  or  money  to  take  advantage  of 
them? 

Here,  then,  are  the  advxiting  motives  of  the  trade  union, 
the  feelings  that  call  it  into  heijig  —  a  protest  against  exist- 
ing conditions  with  an  earnest  conviction  that  they  are 
unjust,  and  a  deep  aspiration  for  a  fuller,  broader,  larger 
life. 

Its  methods  are  ultra-conservative.  It  rejects  with- 
out courtesy  all  new  or  radical  propositions,  and  all 
"remedies."  SociaUsm,  single  tax,  cooperation,  philo- 
sophical anarchy,  prohibition,  free  trade,  protection  — 
all  these  and  many  more  ideas  have  been  forced  upon 
the  attention  of  organized  labour,  but  it  would  have  none 
of  them.  It  has  clung  closely  to  its  old  methods^ 
organize,  ask  advances,  confer,  arbitrate,  if  arbitration 
is  wanted,  strike,  boycott.  All  these  methods  were 
practised  ages  before  the  Christian  era.  Modern  trade 
unionism  has  added  but  one  weapon  to  its  armory  — 
the  imion  label.  It  has  lost  one  weapon  —  the  sword. 
The  ballot  was  given  to  it,  but  as  yet  the  workmen  have 
no  conception  what  it  is  for,  or  how  to  use  it  to  defend 
or  advance  their  own  rights  and  interests  —  nor  has  any 
other  class  of  society.  Direct  legislation  —  that  is,  law- 
making by  ballot,  by  which  process  laws  bearing  unjustly 
upon  the  workers  might  be  changed  without  the  inter- 
vention of  secret,  sinister  influences  —  is  endorsed  by 
organized  labour.  But  leaders,  national  and  local,  turn 
their  backs  upon  it,  and  they  thus  leave  their  followers 


THE  CAUSES  FOR  TRADE  UNIONS  61 

defenceless  before  their  enemies.  They  have  wandered 
deeper  and  deeper  into  an  endless  judicial  and  legislative 
quagmire,  from  which  nothing  can  ever  extract  them 
but  a  direct  voice  in  law-making. 

To  summarize:  Labour,  by  law,  is  so  restricted  in 
opportimities  for  employment  that  an  unnatural  com- 
petition between  labourers  for  jobs  forces  wages  to  the 
lowest  possible  point,  and  the  monopolist  pilfers  at 
least  25  per  cent  of  what  little  the  labourer  receives. 
The  trade  union  attacks  these  conditions  with  a  demand 
for  better  pay,  hours,  and  working  conditions.  Its  con- 
tention is  just. 

To  the  trade  unionist  the  wage-scale  is  the  all-impor- 
tant point.  To  raise  it  is  to  elevate,  to  lower  it  is  to 
degrade  humanity.  Its  ideal  is,  that  each  man  should 
enjoy  the  full  fruits  of  his  own  toil.  Poverty,  with  all 
its  vices  and  its  woes,  and  superfluous  wealth,  with  its 
pride,  arrogance,  greed,  selfishness,  and  wicked  vanities, 
would  both  disappear  could  the  union  fully  succeed. 

This  is  the  goal  toward  which  organized  labour  is 
striving.  It  is  not  for  me  to  indicate  your  line  of  policy, 
or  to  force  upon  your  conscience  the  thing  that  seems 
right  to  mine.  But  I  exhort  you  to  examine  earnestly 
into  the  truth  of  the  statements  I  have  made  to  you. 
I  may  at  least  instruct  you  that  it  is  your  duty  to  gain 
a  sympathetic  knowledge  of  these  men  and  this  move- 
ment. And  it  is  to  be  remembered  that  sympathy  is 
absolutely  essential  to  true  knowledge. 


THE  WORK  AND  METHODS   OF  TRADE 
UNIONS 

BY 

Henry  Sterling 


THE  WORK  AND  METHODS  OF  TRADE  UNIONS 

WE  now  have  to  observe  that  the  union  labour 
movement  is  not  only  voluntary,  but  spon- 
taneous. The  impression  of  some  that  the  perfervid 
oratory  of  agitators  has  stirred  up  discontent  and  caused 
men  to  seek  in  union  they  knew  not  what,  is  wholly 
wrong.  Not  all  the  eloquence  that  ever  flowed  could 
avail  to  create  the  smallest  union,  had  not  the  men 
been  impressed  by  a  conviction  that  they  were  suffer- 
ing from  deep  injustice.  Most  unions  are  the  outgrowth 
of  casual  rehearsals  of  grievances,  on  the  street,  in  the 
shop,  or  elsewhere.  Some  one  suggests  that  a  meeting 
be  held  to  talk  matters  over.  One  or  two  individuals 
volunteer  to  find  a  meeting  place,  and  generally,  after 
much  irregularity  of  procedure,  sending  of  a  committee 
to  the  employers  is  broached.  Sometimes  a  commit- 
tee is  named,  but  more  frequently  those  present  de- 
cide that  they  are  not  well  enough  experienced  or 
organized  to  venture  on  such  a  step.  Then  some  one 
proposes  that  a  union  be  formed,  and  the  evening's 
work  usually  concludes  with  the  appointment  of  a 
committee  to  consult  with  a  union  official  or  some  one 
active  in  the  labour  world,  as  to  the  proper  course  to 
pursue.  Another  meeting  is  called  and  the  labour 
"leader"  comes,  generally  at  his  own  expense,  and 
relates  in  simple,  homely  language  the  hardships  which 

65 


66  THE  METHODS  OF  TRADE  UNIONS 

he  and  his  fellows  suffered,  and  what  progress  the  union 
has  made  in  bettering  conditions.  The  speaker  reaches 
his  hearers  because  he  talks  to  them  of  every-day 
things  that  have  hurt  both  him  and  them.  To  them 
the  little  advances  that  his  union  has  made  are  pictures 
of  things  hoped  for,  but  never  expected.  A  resolution 
is  passed  to  form  a  union,  perhaps  names  are  attached 
to  a  promise  to  join,  a  committee  is  authorized  to 
attend  to  the  details,  and  the  hat  is  passed  to  pay  ex- 
penses.   In  this  simple  manner  most  unions  are  born. 

The  work  of  the  trade  union  movement  has  been 
mainly  along  three  hues:  influencing  of  pubUc  opinion, 
legislative  effort,  and  the  direct  improvement  of  the 
labour  conditions  of  its  members.  This  last  line  of  work 
has  absorbed  most  of  its  time  and  energy,  and  its  suc- 
cess has  been  gratifying,  though  not  so  great  as  it  might 
have  been  had  its  efforts  been  directed  against  causes 
instead  of  effects. 

Its  greatest,  most  beneficent  and  far-reaching  work 
has  been  in  the  realms  of  pubhc  thought  and  legislation. 
The  church,  of  course,  has  enunciated  high  moral  prin- 
ciples; but  to  the  trade  unions  belongs  the  credit  of 
making  such  partial  apphcation  of  those  principles  to 
industrial  conditions  as  has  been  attained  in  our  age. 
"As  ye  would  that  men  should  do  unto  you,  do  ye  even 
so  unto  them,"  said  the  church,  and  organized  labour 
called  upon  all  the  world  to  look  upon  fainting  woman- 
hood and  blighted  childhood  in  industry,  and  asked, 
"Is  that  as  ye  would  be  done  by?"  "The  hfe  is  more 
than  meat  and  the  body  more  than  raiment,"  proclaimed 


THE  METHODS  OF  TRADE  UNIONS  67 

the  church.  But  the  labourer  gives  up  life  for  less  than 
enough  meat  to  sustain  it,  and  his  raiment  is  the  poorest 
worn.  ''Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbour  as  thy  self." 
Then  cease  to  maim,  and  mangle,  and  kill,  and  poison, 
in  dangerous  industries  and  insanitary  workshops. 
The  church  announces  the  fatherhood  of  God  and  the 
brotherhood  of  men.  "Then  give  our  injured  and 
striking  brothers  the  same  rights  in  the  courts  and  under 
the  law  that  other  citizens  enjoy,"  reply  the  trade  unions. 

These  appeals  have  not  been  in  vain.  The  unions  have 
aroused  the  public  conscience  until  the  best  thought 
of  the  time  has  turned  toward  economic  subjects.  The 
wide-spread,  earnest  discussions  of  all  phases  of  the 
problems  of  poverty  and  labour  give  sure  promise  of 
progress  toward  their  solution. 

The  great  failure  of  the  unions  in  the  realm  of  thought 
and  conscience  is  that  they  have  not  yet  taught  man- 
kind that  to  get  wealth  without  work  is  to  rob  the 
worker. 

One  of  the  highest  achievements  of  organized  labour 
is  the  acceptance  and  practical  appUcation  of  the  golden 
rule  among  men  seldom  reached  by  church  or  school. 
Among  union  men,  working  together,  every  act  of  one 
toward  his  fellows  is  judged  by  the  question,  "Is  that 
good  unionism?"  Which,  being  interpreted,  means 
simply,  is  it  doing  as  you  would  be  done  by?  Not  that 
the  men  have  attained  perfection  in  this  or  any  other 
regard  —  indeed,  I  have  heard  union  men  reproach 
each  other  with  being  as  mean  as  church  members  — 
but  the  question  is  always  there,  and  men  ask  it  of  them- 


68  THE  METHODS  OF  TRADE  UNIONS 

selves,  and  they  are  constantly  growing  more  kindly 
and  forbearing,  more  considerate  of  each  other's  feelings 
and  welfare,  more  zealous  for  the  common  good,  more 
ready  to  subordinate  individual  will,  or  opinion,  or 
interest,  to  the  will,  or  opinion,  or  interest,  of  the 
majority. 

Notable  good  has  been  accompUshed  in  the  legislative 
field.  Remove  from  the  statute  books  of  the  civilized 
world  the  laws  suggested  and  supported  by  organized 
labour,  and  nearly  every  vestige  of  humane  legislation 
will  be  gone.  Life  and  limb  have  to  some  extent  been 
safeguarded,  little  children  have  been  taken  from  labour 
and  sent  to  school,  insanitary  shops  have  been  made 
tolerable,  indecent  conditions  in  factories  have  been 
abolished,  women  have  been  protected,  regular  pay- 
ments in  actual  money  provided  for,  fines  prohibited, 
sweat  shops  diminished,  operations  of  money  sharks 
restricted,  mechanics'  liens  secured,  free  schools  and 
free  text-books  urged  for  children  freed  from  the  mills. 

These  measures  apply  to  all  workers.  In  its  legis- 
lative work,  at  least,  organized  labour  has  been  supremely 
unselfish.  The  good  that  has  come  from  its  efforts  is 
being  enjoyed  by  millions  who  repudiate  it.  It  has 
asked  nothing  for  itself  alone.  It  has  sought  the  good 
of  all. 

As  an  educational  force,  the  benefits  of  the  imion  are 
frequently  acknowledged.  These  men  meet  by  the 
thousand,  with  no  education,  no  books,  no  instructors. 
Gradually,  by  observation,  reason,  a  little  reading  and 
much  exercise,  they  develop  an  ability  that  frequently 


THE  METHODS  OF  TRADE  UNIONS  69 

makes  them  the  peer  of  the  brightest.  The  tumultuous 
assemblages  become  orderly  gatherings,  with  a  pro- 
cedure and  decorum  the  equal  of  many  more  noted  legis- 
lative bodies.  There  is  deep'  feeling  there,  and  strong 
passions,  and  a  force  that  leaves  no  place  for  intellectual 
weaklings,  but  seldom  do  they  break  the  bonds  of 
accepted  parliamentary  practice. 

Note  the  change  in  the  status  of  organized  labour. 
A  few  years  ago,  up  to  1824,  membership  in  a  imion 
was  a  criminal  offence.  Now  organization  is  allowable, 
even  commendable,  and  men  may  even  strike,  for  any 
cause  which  to  them  seems  good.  They  may  not  boy- 
cott, although  the  boycott  has  been  in  constant  use 
since  the  day  when  the  Lord  turned  away  from  the 
burnt-offering  of  Cain,  and  that  individual  in  jealous 
rage  slew  his  brother. 

In  the  industrial  world  these  two  weapons,  the  strike 
and  the  boycott,  have  always  been  the  right  hand  and 
the  left  of  organized  labour.  No  victory  or  advance  has 
ever  been  possible  in  that  field  without  them.  Con- 
ferences and  arbitration  seem  to  have  accomplished 
much,  but  neither  conference  nor  arbitration  is  ever 
granted  unless  the  men  are  thoroughly  organized  and 
ready  to  strike  and  boycott.  Committees  from  work- 
men were  spurned  with  contempt  until  strike  after 
strike  compelled  respect.  The  long  struggle  of  the 
manual  labourer  for  a  share  in  the  blessings  of  civiUza- 
tion  has  not  been  an  easy,  triumphant  march.  Every 
step  has  been  fought  inch  by  inch.  Every  concession 
has  been  wrung  by  force  from  unwilling  hands.    It  is 


70  THE  METHODS  OF  TRADE  UNIONS 

not  a  thing  of  the  past  few  years.  It  began  thousands 
of  years  ago,  when  every  man  who  worked  with  his 
hands  was  a  chattel  slave,  when  men  and  women  were 
worked  together  hke  common  beasts,  and  beaten  or 
slaughtered  with  no  more  consideration.  Throughout 
the  ages  of  agony  these  two  weapons  are  the  only  ones 
that  stood  him  in  good  stead.  The  sword  proved  his 
destruction.  With  the  ballot  he  has  betrayed  himself. 
The  strike  and  the  boycott,  actively  in  force  or  passively 
in  reserve,  alone  have  proved  effective. 

The  methods  to  attain  the  end  desired  are  simple. 
Organize,  formulate  demands,  strike  if  refused,  boycott 
if  the  strike  is  lost.  Brutal  programme,  is  it  not?  All 
force.  Yet  what  else  prevails?  What  effective  method, 
other  than  this,  has  ever  been  suggested,  even  by  the 
greatest  minds,  to  gain  for  labourers  a  share  in  what 
an  advancing  civilization  has  to  give.  Aspirations  for 
knowledge,  wisdom,  education,  art,  science,  Hterature, 
culture,  bloom  in  the  poor  man's  heart  as  well  as  in  the 
rich.  Must  he  forever  forego  these  things  because  of 
lack  of  leisure  and  means?  Not  if  long  and  painful 
struggle  will  attain  them.  And  he  will  use  the  only 
weapons  he  has.  It  rests  with  objectors  to  suggest 
better. 

The  union  label  has  come  largely  into  use  since  the 
late  eighties.  It  has  created  a  certain  demand  for 
goods  known  to  have  been  made  by  imion  labour.  It 
is  a  sign  that  the  workers  who  produced  the  article  on 
which  it  appears  received  reasonable  wages  and  hours, 
and  fair  treatment.    It  has  bettered  the  industrial  con- 


THE  METHODS  OF  TRADE  UNIONS  71 

ditions  of  many  thousands.  The  purchase  of  goods 
bearing  the  union  label  is  a  direct  and  effective  method 
of  assisting  the  work  of  organized  labour  in  giving  the 
workers  and  their  children  a  better  chance  in  the  world. 
The  imion  label  cannot,  however,  be  a  solution  for  the 
labour  problem,  because  of  the  complications  that  arise 
in  its  use,  and  the  fact  that  only  a  few  unions  can  avail 
themselves  of  its  benefits. 

Criticism  is  not  nowadays  directed  against  the  organ- 
ization of  labour.  It  has  come  to  be  acknowledged  that 
labouring  men  have  the  same  right  to  organize  for  mutual 
improvement  and  betterment  as  professional  men,  or 
merchants,  or  manufacturers.  But  much  fault  is  found 
with  specific  acts  of  the  unions. 

First,  it  is  said  that  many  of  the  demands  made  are 
imreasonable.  When  viewed  from  the  point  of  the 
employer,  doubtless  they  often  seem  to  be  unreasonable; 
when  the  value  of  the  work  to  society  is  considered, 
and  the  needs  of  the  men  and  their  famiUes,  the  justice 
of  the  demand  is  apparent.  In  reality,  the  employer  is 
simply  an  agent  between  the  two  parties,  the  general 
public  and  the  labourer.  When  the  conscience  of  the 
people  declares  that  manual  labourers  are  receiving  too 
small  a  return  for  their  toil,  the  employer  has  to  pay 
more  and  recoup  himself  as  best  he  can.  Sometimes 
less  hours  or  more  pay  brings  greater  efficiency  in  the 
men  themselves;  sometimes  new  or  improved  machinery 
or  processes  are  devised;  sometimes  the  employer  passes 
the  cost  along  to  the  consumer,  and  sometimes  the 
tribute  to  the  landlord,   or  usurer,   or  monopolist  is 


72  THE  METHODS  OF  TRADE  UNIONS 

diminished  or  checked.  However  he  does  it,  the  em- 
ployer must  recoup  himself,  or  the  business  passes  into 
more  competent  hands.  The  advances  are  sanctioned 
by  the  public  conscience,  or  they  could  not  be  gained. 
Consider  if  you  know  of  any  class  of  labouring  men  who 
are  being  paid  more  than  they  should  justly  receive. 

It  used  to  be  declared  that  all  these  advances  to 
union  men  decreased  the  wages  of  non-union  men. 
That  is,  that  the  employers  recouped  themselves  for 
those  advances  by  reducing  the  pay  of  the  imorganized 
workmen.  But  as  the  wages  in  unorganized  trades  have 
shown  some  reflection  of  the  increases  in  organized 
industries,  that  contention  has  been  abandoned.  Now 
it  is  claimed  that  the  increase  is  passed  along  to  the 
consumer.  In  some  few  instances  it  is;  if  the  employer 
enjoys  some  form  of  monopoly,  it  always  is,  with  some 
increase  for  passing  it,  as  in  the  case  of  the  coal  trust. 
But  in  most  instances  the  increase  is  offset  by  increased 
efficiency  of  production  or  a  restraint  on  those  who 
reap  where  they  do  not  sow.  When  the  price  for  any 
commodity  has  unduly  advanced,  it  is  almost  invariably 
the  fact  that  a  monopoly  of  some  kind  has  secured 
control. 

Some  people  delight  in  calling  organized  labour  a  trust. 
If  there  had  been  two  or  three  victims  on  the  road  to 
Jericho,  and  they  had  joined  together  to  resist  the  dep- 
redations of  the  robbers,  they  would  have  been  in  the 
identical  position  of  labour  to-day.  The  only  monopoly 
they  could  have  would  be  such  weapons  and  strength 
and  skill  as  united  they  possessed.    Their  only  'Hrust" 


THE  METHODS  OF  TRADE  UNIONS  73 

would  be  in  God,  each  other,  and  a  righteous  cause. 
For  them  there  could  be  no  expectation  of  gain,  their 
only  hope  being  to  retain  some  part  of  that  which 
rightfully  belonged  to  them;  and  so  it  is  with  the  unions. 
United  and  resisting,  they  retain  a  httle  extra  of  the 
product  of  their  own  labour,  and  for  this  they  are  de- 
nounced as  robbers. 

Unions  restrict  output,  it  is  said,  and  doubtless  it  is 
true  that  occasionally  a  man  has  been  restrained  for 
the  general  good.  But  it  was  an  act  of  mercy,  and  not 
of  laziness.  Because  one  man  has  imusual  strength, 
or  greed,  or  a  desire  to  curry  favour  with  the  boss,  or 
receives  a  dollar  extra,  is  no  reason  why  he  should  be 
allowed  to  set  a  pace  that  breaks  down  his  fellows  with 
overwork.  The  hypocrisy  of  the  criticism  is  seen  when 
no  word  is  said  about  the  trusts  shutting  down  mills 
to  enhance  prices,  or  about  the  men  who  monopolize 
hundreds  of  thousands  of  acres  of  coal,  iron,  copper, 
and  other  mineral  lands,  and  allow  no  portion  to  be 
dug.  These  restrict  output  to  a  greater  extent  in  a 
minute  than  organized  labour  does  in  a  lifetime.  And 
theirs  is  not  an  act  of  mercy.  Their  distinct  purpose 
is  to  extort  more  wealth  without  work,  extract  more 
of  the  flesh  and  blood  of  the  poor,  without  anything  in 
return.  The  same  is  true  of  those  who  restrict  output 
by  grabbing  timber  lands,  agricultural  lands,  and  water 
ways.  More  emphatically  is  it  true  of  those  who  hold 
vacant  lots  in  cities.  Here  are  grand  opportunities  for 
a  magnificent  output  of  homes  to  relieve  the  congested 
slums  and  disease-breeding  tenements;  and  chances  to 


74  THE  METHODS  OF  TRADE  UNIONS 

build  factories  in  which  the  festering  population  of  the 
slums  might  earn  a  decent  livelihood.  But  the  specu- 
lators sit  tight.  Their  taxes  are  nominal,  and  they  can 
make  a  handsome  profit  by  restricting  the  output  of 
homes,  and  factories,  and  business  places,  which  in 
turn  restricts  the  output  from  the  mines,  forests,  quar- 
ries, brickyards,  farms,  and  from  all  the  industries 
that  go  to  feed,  and  clothe,  and  shelter  the  multitude. 
Why,  these  restricters  of  output  who  hold  idle  the  nat- 
ural opportunities  of  labour  are  the  prime  cause  of  all 
our  economic  woes. 

"Ye  strain  at  a  gnat,  and  swallow  a  camel.' ^  The 
grafters  are  not  the  $500-a-year  labourers,  but  those  who 
secure  wealth  without  work,  and  it  is  not  the  labourer, 
but  the  monopoHst,  who  restricts  output. 

Union  men  want  imion  shops.  They  want  to  exclude 
strike-breakers  and  non-union  men  from  them.  Why 
shouldn't  they?  By  devotion,  and  labour,  and  sacri- 
fices, the  imion  men  made  the  positions  in  those  shops 
desirable.  They  increased  the  wages,  decreased  the 
hours,  and  bettered  the  working  conditions.  And  now 
they  are  asked  to  give  up  the  places  they  have  made 
desirable  to  strike-breakers.  Why  should  they?  What 
have  these  traitors  to  the  common  cause  done  to  merit 
the  best  places?  They  have  betrayed  their  fellow- 
workman  in  a  critical  struggle.  They  have  injured  him 
and  his  family.  They  have  sacrificed  the  general  good 
for  personal  gain.  And  now  it  is  proposed  that  union 
men  shall  give  up  these  desirable  places  to  those  who 
struggled  against  making  them  desirable.    The  proposi- 


THE  METHODS  OF  TRADE  UNIONS  75 

tion  is  immoral.  Aside  from  the  sinister  desire  to  dis- 
rupt the  union  while  making  a  plea  for  fairness,  omitting 
consideration  of  the  right  of  a  man  to  refuse  to  work 
with  those  obnoxious  to  him,  the  intent  is  to  rob  the 
union  man  of  the  fruits  of  his  work  and  sacrifice.  He 
struck  for  better  wages,  hours,  and  conditions;  let  him 
enjoy  them.  The  strike-breaker  helped  to  retain  low 
wages  and  long  hours;  let  him  go  and  work  where  those 
conditions  prevail. 

Of  course  the  ulterior  motive  of  the  cry  for  the  open 
shop  is  to  cripple  the  union.  To  see  the  strike-breakers 
in  good  jobs,  with  special  favours,  no  dues  and  no  lay- 
offs in  dull  times,  may  discourage  and  weaken  the 
loyalty  of  union  men.  It  does.  And  so  the  union  men 
resist  the  mixed  shop  —  part  imion  and  part  non-union 
—  because  it  is  unfair  to  them  and  inimical  to  the  com- 
mon good. 

Much  criticism  has  been  aimed  at  restriction  of  ap- 
prentices. Many  employers  hire  boys  and  young  women 
at  under  pay,  with  the  pretext  of  teaching  the  trade. 
The  learner  is  seldom,  if  ever,  taught  anything,  in  the 
true  sense  of  the  word,  but  is  set  at  some  minor  task 
pertaining  to  the  business  and  kept  at  it  until  a  decent 
wage  is  demanded,  and  then  cast  adrift,  and  another 
hired,  and  similarly  treated.  Some  estabhshments  have 
employed  alleged  apprentices  far  in  excess  of  the  jour- 
neymen. Unions  have  sought  to  correct  these  abuses, 
and  have  been  partially  successful,  but  great  difficulty 
is  encountered  in  inducing  even  employers  of  union 
men  to  treat  the  apprentices  fairly.    Low  pay  and 


76  THE  METHODS  OF  TRADE  UNIONS 

hard,  menial  work,  most  of  it  at  tasks  not  an  essential 
part  of  the  trade,  is  the  lot  of  too  many  apprentices. 
Profits  on  apprentices  are  lost  if  a  journeyman  loses 
time  teaching  them.  Unions  have  attempted  to  fix  a 
ratio  between  apprentices  and  journeymen  that  would 
provide  for  the  natural  expansion  in  the  industry  and 
for  the  losses  by  death  and  otherwise,  and  insure  each 
apprentice  fair  opportunity  to  master  the  trade.  Pos- 
sibly self-interest  has  set  the  ratio  too  low.  It  is  said 
that  some  unions  prohibit  apprentices  altogether.  Such 
a  regulation,  if  it  exists,  cannot  be  too  bitterly  de- 
nounced. If  the  ratio  is  too  low  it  should  be  increased, 
and  employers  should  be  urged  to  deal  justly  with  the 
young  persons  they  secure  at  low  wages  under  promise 
to  teach  the  trade. 

Of  labour  injunctions  it  is  difficult  to  speak  without 
betraying  something  of  the  deep  feeling  which  pervades 
the  labour  world.  The  process  is  of  recent  birth.  Indus- 
trial struggles  have  gone  on  for  ages,  but  until  recent 
years  no  one  dreamed  that  any  power  lay  latent  in  an 
equity  court  to  intervene  in  them  in  such  a  way  as  to 
summarily  decide  them  against  the  strikers.  The  exer- 
cise of  so  new,  and  novel,  and  unexpected  a  power  may 
naturally  be  looked  upon  with  suspicion.  But  the  sur- 
prise caused  by  the  issue  of  labour  injunctions  by  the 
ordinary  powers  of  the  courts  was  greatly  increased 
when  the  Sherman  anti-trust  act  was  found  to  enlarge 
those  powers.  An  act  passed  to  curb  monopoly  has 
been  found  effective  only  in  curbing  the  exercise  by 
working  men  of  fimdamental,  essential  rights.    So  in- 


THE  METHODS  OF  TRADE  UNIONS  77 

junctions  have  flowed  in  a  stream  from  the  national 
and  state  courts,  imtil  their  number  is  beyond  remem- 
brance, and  everjrthing  a  workman  on  strike  might 
dream  of  doing  has  been  at  one  time  or  another  for- 
bidden by  judge-made  law. 

In  October,  1897,  when  the  stream  was  just  gaining 
a  portentous  headway,  Hon.  W.  H.  Moody,  since  a 
member  of  the  President's  cabinet,  said:  "I  believe  in 
recent  years  the  courts  of  the  United  States,  as  well  as 
the  courts  of  our  own  commonwealth,  have  gone  to  the 
very  verge  of  danger  in  applying  the  process  of  the  writ 
of  injunction  in  disputes  between  labour  and  capital.'' 
They  have  gone  much  farther  since. 

The  first  wrong  in  the  labour  injunction  is  that  it  is 
procured  by  false  pretences.  The  petitioner  alleges 
under  oath  that  certain  property  is  in  immediate  danger 
of  irreparable  injury.  The  writ  of  injunction  is  prayed 
for  to  protect  it.  But  all  the  world  knows  the  injunc- 
tion is  desired  not  to  protect  property,  but  to  defeat  a 
strike.  It  is  intended  and  expected  that  the  injunction 
with  its  involved  and  undefinable  wording,  its  prohibi- 
tions impossible  to  understand  or  limit,  will  so  confuse, 
dismay,  and  dishearten  the  strikers  as  to  force  them  to 
submit.    And  it  does. 

That  these  injunctions  are  procured,  not  as  sworn  to 
in  the  petition,  to  protect  property,  but  to  defeat  strikes, 
and  that  it  is  a  conscious  purpose  on  the  part  of  the 
petitioner  to  deceive  the  court  and  prostitute  its  powers, 
is  shown  by  the  following  extract  from  a  circular  signed 
by  the  secretary  and  chairman  of  an  employers'  asso- 


78  THE  METHODS  OF  TRADE  UNIONS 

elation,  issued  shortly  after  a  great  strike  in  one  of  our 
large  cities : 

^'It  would  have  been  impossible  to  terminate  this 
strike  successfully  without  the  aid  of  the  courts,  through 
the  process  of  injunction.  The  courts  were  our  bulwark, 
the  injunction  our  only  weapon  when  all  other  means 
of  defence  had  been  exhausted.  Without  it  we  should 
have  failed.  This  is  significant,  and  cannot  be  too 
strongly  emphasized  at  the  present  time,  when  the 
power  of  the  courts  is  being  assailed  by  demagogues." 

Now  the  property  alleged  by  the  petitioners  for  such 
injunctions  to  be  in  danger  is  the  capacity  of  the  em- 
ployer to  conduct  his  business,  and  the  good-will  of  his 
customers.  But  the  capacity  of  a  man  to  labour  in  that 
business,  and  the  good-will  of  such  as  might  employ 
him,  his  customers,  is  not  property,  according  to  the 
courts.  (Worthington  v.  Waring,  159  Mass.  421,  Dec. 
1892.)  The  personal  and  constitutional  rights  of  the 
labourer  seem  to  be  of  no  account  in  the  eyes  of  the 
court  if  the  employer  alleges  his  (intangible)  property 
is  in  danger,  and  the  exercise  of  many  of  the  ordinary 
rights  of  citizenship  has  been  unceremoniously  denied 
him.  Of  these  the  most  important  are  freedom  of 
assemblage,  of  the  usual  use  of  public  highways,  free- 
dom of  speech  and  of  the  press;  and  the  operation  of  the 
injimction  is  to  menace  punishment  for  innocent  acts, 
and  to  deny  a  trial  by  jury  if  accused  of  a  crime  or  mis- 
demeanour. 

It  might  not  be  proper  to  comment  upon  the  cele- 
brated case  now  pending  in  Washington,  but  here  is  an 


THE  METHODS  OF  TRADE  UNIONS  79 

extract  from  a  similar  injunction  touching  the  freedom 
of  the  press,  issued  in  a  Massachusetts  case : 

"We,  therefore  ...  do  strictly  enjoin  and  command 
you  ...  to  desist  and  refrain  from  interfering  with  the 
complainant's  business  by  printing,  publishing,  or  cir- 
culating, or  causing  to  be  printed,  pubUshed,  or  circu- 
lated, a  certain  paper  or  circular  .  .  .,  and  from  printing, 
publishing,  or  circulating  any  other  paper,  circular,  or 
printed  matter  intended  or  designed  to  deprive  the 
complainant  of  customers  .  .  ."  (No.  3736  Eq.,  Sup. 
Court,  Mass.) 

And  here  is  a  clause  from  the  constitution  of  the 
Commonwealth  of  Massachusetts: 

"Art.  XVI.  The  liberty  of  the  press  is  essential  to 
the  security  of  freedom  in  a  state;  it  ought  not,  there- 
fore, to  be  restrained  in  this  commonwealth."    Further: 

"Art.  XX.  The  power  of  suspending  the  laws,  or  the 
exercise  of  the  laws,  ought  never  to  be  exercised,  but  by 
the  legislature,  or  by  authority  derived  from  it,  to  be 
exercised  in  such  particular  cases  only  as  the  legislature 
shall  expressly  provide  for."  Equity  courts  suspend 
the  constitution  to  defeat  strikes. 

The  exercise  of  ordinary  rights  is  denied,  and  the 
execution  of  the  laws  interrupted,  for  what?  To  defend 
property?  No;  to  defeat  a  group  of  strikers  struggling 
to  escape  from  an  intolerable  economic  condition;  to 
force  them  into  submission. 

The  courts  cannot  continue  to  deny  the  right  of  a 
man  pubHcly  to  state  his  grievances.  The  courts  seem 
to  draw  a  distinction  between   freedom  to  denounce 


80  THE  METHODS  OF  TRADE  UNIONS 

wrong  in  the  government,  politics,  politicians,  and  public 
men,  and  freedom  to  denounce  wrong  done  by  concerns 
whose  business  may  be  hurt  if  the  truth  be  told  about 
them.  The  most  effective  way  to  right  a  wrong  is  to 
tell  it  to  the  pubHc.  It  a  man's  business  can  be  hurt 
by  telling  the  truth  about  it,  the  quicker  it  is  told  the 
better  for  the  public  welfare.  But  if  in  telling  his 
grievances  the  workman  speaks  falsely,  he  should  be 
subject  to  the  same  procedure,  the  same  laws,  and  the 
same  punishment,  as  other  citizens  are  subject  to,  and 
not  be  forbidden  to  speak,  and  railroaded  to  jail  for 
contempt  of  court  if  he  opens  his  mouth. 

The  workmen  injured  while  at  their  emplojnnent, 
the  courts  have  placed  in  a  class  by  themselves  and  de- 
nied every  right  of  recovery  enjoyed  by  other  citizens. 
The  legal  doctrines  of  fellow  workmen,  assumption  of 
risk  and  contributory  negligence  deny  any  adequate 
satisfaction  for  damage  done  to  the  employe,  whatever 
the  cause.  The  result  could  have  been  foreseen.  The 
employer  reheved  from  proper  responsibility  in  dam- 
ages to  his  injured  workman,  our  industrial  world  has 
become  a  shambles.  It  is  cheaper  to  kill  a  man  than  a 
mule.  Men  are  killed  and  maimed  and  mangled  at  a 
rate  unknown  anywhere  but  here.  Millions  of  deso- 
lated homes  are  the  direct  outcome  of  the  Massachu- 
setts decision  in  the  early  forties  that  the  engineer 
injured  by  the  carelessness  of  the  switchman  could  not 
recover  because  they  were  fellow  servants. 

Autocratic  authority,  wherever  it  may  reside,  is 
destructive  of  liberty  and  progress.    Judges  in  equity, 


THE  METHODS  OF  TRADE  UNIONS  81 

and  in  the  interpretation  of  the  constitution  and  the 
common  law,  exercise  such  power.  So  do  legislators 
within  ill-defined  limitations. 

When  the  law  is  under  control  of  the  whole  people, 
through  the  power  of  legislation  directly  by  them  when 
they  so  choose,  the  right  of  the  lowly  can  be  safeguarded 
—  and  not  till  then.  We  need  a  further  extension 
of  the  franchise,  to  measures  as  well  as  men.  Some 
progress  can  then  be  made  toward  more  just  industrial 
conditions  —  and  not  till  then. 

I  know  of  no  institution  of  our  civilization  whose  aim 
is  to  secure  justice  for  the  lowly,  except  the  trade  union. 
The  church  dispenses  alms,  but  not  justice;  the  press 
seeks  its  own  power  and  enrichment;  the  courts  and 
legislatures  are  so  engrossed  in  the  defence  of  the  rights 
of  property  that  they  forget  that  humanity  has  rights 
which  ought  to  be  respected,  if  not  by  them  maintained. 
Organized  labour's  sole  purpose  is  to  defend  and  advance 
the  rights  and  interests  of  the  workers.  It  is  doing  a 
great  work,  but  it  will  fail,  and  will  lose  much  of  the 
ground  it  has  gained,  and  many  of  the  rights  formerly 
secured,  unless  it  bends  earnestly  to  the  attainment  for 
the  whole  people  of  still  greater  rights  —  the  enlarge- 
ment of  the  franchise,  the  right  to  the  earth,  freedom 
from  the  exactions  of  the  monopolist  and  the  money- 
lender. 

I  often  think  that  the  parable  of  the  man  who  went 
down  from  Jerusalem  to  Jericho  has  a  more  important 
significance  than  is  usually  attached  to  it.  The  man 
seems  to  me  to  typify  Labour  —  he  fell  among  thieves, 


82  THE  METHODS  OF  TRADE  UNIONS 

was  robbed,  stripped,  wounded,  and  left  for  dead.  And 
the  priest  and  Levite  of  that  day  passed  by  on  the  other 
side.  The  union  has  not  restored  the  stolen  goods,  but 
it  has  relieved  the  distress  somewhat.  It  has  striven 
to  uplift,  comfort,  and  defend  all  whom  it  could  reach. 
It  has  stayed  somewhat  the  hand  of  the  despoiler.  It 
has  invited  to  its  folds  all  who  will  come,  to  share  its 
toils  and  sacrifices,  and  to  enjoy  its  blessings  —  except 
the  man  or  race  who  would  lower  wages.  Even  the 
strike-breaker  is  welcome,  if  he  bring  forth  fruits  meet 
for  repentance. 

Are  your  fellow  men  victims  like  the  man  on  the  way 
to  Jericho?  Not  only  at  the  last  day,  but  every  day  of 
your  lives,  you  will  be  judged  by  the  Word,  "Inasmuch 
as  ye  did  it  unto  these,  ye  did  it  unto  Me." 

Some  complaint  has  been  made  that  working  men  will 
not  attend  the  church.  Had  the  victim  on  the  road  to 
Jericho  found  in  some  of  the  chief  seats  in  the  synagogue 
the  men  who  robbed  him  without  mercy,  and  at  the 
altar  the  priest  and  Levite  who  looked  upon  him  with- 
out pity,  doubtless  he  would  have  gone  his  way  sorrow- 
ful. 


AN  EXPOSITION  AND  INTERPRETATION 
OF  THE  TRADE   UNION  MOVEMENT 

BY 

John  Mitchell 

Vice-President  of  the  American  Federation  of  Labour; 
chairman  of  the  Trade  Agreement  Department  of  the 
National  Civic  Federation;  formerly  President  of  the 
United  Mine  Workers  of  America. 


AN    EXPOSITION   AND    INTERPRETATION   OF 
THE  TRADE  UNION  MOVEMENT 

1AM  very  happy  to  be  afforded  the  opportunity  of 
discussing  before  the  students  of  the  Yale  Divinity 
School  some  phases  of  the  industrial  problem.  I  shall 
not,  of  course,  even  attempt  to  suggest  a  panacea  for 
the  ills  of  which  society  so  bitterly  complains,  but  I  do 
wish  to  point  out  some  of  the  things  which  the  organized 
workmen  of  our  country  are  doing  to  ameliorate  the 
conditions  under  which  wage-earners  live  and  work. 
And  I  hope  that  in  discussing  these  questions  I  may 
succeed  in  dispelling  some  of  the  erroneous  impressions 
which  have  been  given  wide  circulation  by  the  critics 
and  opponents  of  the  organized  labour  movement.  Per- 
haps the  most  that  I  can  add  to  the  good  instructions 
which  Dr.  Macfarland  is  giving  you  is  to  explain  our 
movement.  What  ministers  and  all  others  most  need 
to  have  is  a  sympathetic  understanding  of  us. 

To  understand  the  philosophy,  the  piu-pose,  and  the 
ideals  of  the  trade  union  movement  it  is  necessary  that 
we  understand  the  history  of  industrial  development; 
that  we  have  a  clear  comprehension  of  the  complex 
problems  that  characterize  modern  industrial  life;  that 
we  keep  in  mind  the  fact  that  the  purpose  of  the  trade 
imion  movement  is  not  so  much  to  secure  the  advance- 

85 


86         TRADE  UNIONS:  AN  INTERPRETATION 

ment  of  the  exceptional  workman  as  to  bring  about  the 
general  and  gradual  uplift  of  the  great  mass  of  the  wage- 
earners;  and  to  imderstand  the  actions  of  the  organized 
workmen  it  is  necessary  to  consider  the  evils  which  the 
trade  unionists,  by  such  actions,  seek  to  eradicate. 

In  early  times  the  struggle  for  existence  centred  in 
the  problem  of  production.  So  long  as  the  human 
race  depended  upon  the  simple  and  crude  implements 
of  the  agriculturist,  the  himter,  and  the  shepherd,  so 
long  as  the  family  raised  its  own  food  and  made  its  own 
clothes  from  the  fleece  of  its  own  sheep,  it  was  necessary 
that  men,  women,  and  children  work  from  early  morning 
until  late  at  night  in  order  that  by  their  combined  efforts 
sufficient  food  and  clothing  could  be  produced  to  sustain 
and  protect  fife.  The  question  of  distribution  was  not 
a  great  factor  in  determining  the  wealth,  health,  or 
happiness  of  the  human  race.  It  was  not  until  the 
invention  of  machinery,  the  advent  of  the  factory 
system,  the  use  of  steam,  and  the  application  of  new 
processes,  it  was  not  until  society  was  organized,  as  it 
is  to-day,  on  the  basis  of  a  minute  and  complicated 
division  of  labour  and  an  extended  change  and  inter- 
change of  commodities,  that  the  question  of  distribution 
became  the  problem,  the  solution  of  which  has  taxed  the 
ingenuity  of  the  world's  economists  and  statesmen. 

No  one  can  understand  the  true  nature  of  trade 
imionism  without  understanding  the  industrial  revolu- 
tion and  what  it  accomplished.  The  history  of  man- 
kind has  been  more  vitally  affected  by  changes  in  its 
machines  and  in  its  methods  of  doing  business  than  by 


TRADE  UNIONS:  AN  INTERPRETATION         87 

any  action  or  council  of  statesmen  or  philosophers. 
What  we  call  the  modern  world,  with  its  huge  popula- 
tions, its  giant  cities,  its  political  democracy,  its  grow- 
ing intensity  of  life,  its  contrasts  of  wealth  and  poverty 
—  this  great,  whirling,  restless  civilization  with  all  its 
vexing  problems  —  is  the  offspring  largely  of  changed 
conditions  of  producing  wealth.  It  is  vain  to  deplore, 
as  many  have  done  and  as  many  still  do,  the  passing 
of  the  old  order  of  things  and  the  old  methods  of  pro- 
duction. Whether  for  weal  or  for  woe,  the  change  was 
inevitable  and  reform  could  only  be  found  in  further 
development,  not  in  a  return  to  the  past. 

The  evil  conditions  produced  by  the  factory  system 
have  brought  in  part  their  own  corrective,  and  the 
creation  —  through  production  on  a  large  scale  —  of  a 
separate  working  class  with  separate  working-class 
ideals,  formed  the  origin  and  the  basis  of  trade  unionism 
as  it  exists  to-day. 

To  the  average  man  of  affairs  inmiersed  in  his  business 
and  the  daily  routine  of  life,  trade  unionism  may  seem 
a  bewildering  maze  of  conflicting  ideas  and  divergent 
doctrines;  as  a  matter  of  fact,  however,  in  its  funda- 
mental principle  trade  unionism  is  plain  and  clear  and 
simple.  It  starts  from  the  recognition  of  the  fact  that 
under  normal  conditions  the  individual,  unorganized 
workman  cannot  bargain  advantageously  with  the 
employer  for  the  sale  of  his  labour.  Since  the  working 
man  has  no  money  in  reserve  and  must  sell  his  labour 
inmiediately;  since  he  has  no  knowledge  of  the  market 
and  no  skill  in  bargaining;  because  he  has  only  his  own 


88         TRADE  UNIONS:  AN  INTERPRETATION 

labour  to  sell  while  the  employer  engages  hundreds  or 
thousands  of  men  and  can  easily  do  without  the  services 
of  any  particular  individual,  the  working  man,  if  bar- 
gaining on  his  own  account  and  for  himself  alone,  is  at 
a  very  great  disadvantage.  In  the  individual  contract 
between  a  powerful  employer  and  a  single  workman 
the  labourer  will  secure  the  worst  of  it;  such  a  contract 
means  that  the  condition  of  the  poorest  and  lowest 
man  in  the  industry  will  be  that  which  the  average 
man  must  accept.  To  find  a  substitute  for  the  indi- 
vidual bargain,  which  militates  against  the  welfare  and 
happiness  of  the  whole  working  people,  trade  unions 
were  formed,  and  from  first  to  last,  always  and  every- 
where, they  stand  unalterably  opposed  to  the  indi- 
vidual contract.  The  difference  between  the  individual 
and  the  collective  bargain  is  simply  this:  that  in  the 
individual  bargain  one  workman  of  a  hundred  refuses 
to  accept  a  reduction  in  wages,  and  the  employer  retains 
the  services  of  ninety  and  nine,  whereas  in  the  col- 
lective bargain  the  employes  act  in  a  body,  and  the 
employer  retains  or  discharges  all  simultaneously,  and 
upon  the  same  terms.  There  can  be  no  permanent 
prosperity  to  the  wage-earner,  no  real  and  lasting 
progress,  no  consecutive  improvement  in  conditions, 
imtil  the  principle  is  fully  and  firmly  established,  that 
in  industrial  life  —  especially  in  enterprises  on  a  large 
scale  —  the  settlement  of  wages,  hours  of  labour,  and  all 
conditions  of  work  must  be  made  between  employers 
and  working  men  collectively,  and  not  between  em- 
ployers and  working  men  individually.' 


TRADE  UNIONS:  AN  INTERPRETATION        89 

It  is  frequently  charged  against  the  union  that  in 
policy  and  practice  it  reduces  to  a  dead  level  all  the 
men  employed  in  a  given  trade;  that  the  most  efficient 
and  the  most  ambitious  are  reduced  to  the  level  of  the 
incompetent  and  the  sluggard.  This  charge  is  a  Ubel 
and  a  pretence.  The  trade  union  fixes  a  minimum 
wage,  not  a  maximum  wage;  and  the  employer  is  at 
perfect  liberty  to  reward  the  especially  efficient  or 
ambitious  workman  by  paying  him  higher  wages  than 
are  fixed  by  the  union.  The  union  does,  however, 
object  to  one  workman  being  rewarded  by  an  employer 
when  the  reward  is  extracted  from  the  pay  envelope  of 
another  workman.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  however,  the 
employers  usually  fix  a  maximum  wage  at  the  same 
point  at  which  the  union  fixes  the  minimum  wage;  and 
what  is  true  of  wages  is  also  true  when  applied  to  hours 
of  labour  or  other  conditions  of  employment. 

This  principle  of  trade  unionism  will  explain  many 
of  the  seeming  peculiarities  and  many  of  the  numerous 
rules  of  labour  organizations.  It  will  supply  an  answer 
to  the  question,  so  often  asked,  why  the  union  will  not 
allow  a  man  to  accept  two  dollars  a  day,  while  all  other 
workers  in  that  trade  are  receiving  three  dollars  a  day; 
or  to  accept  forty  cents  for  mining  a  ton  of  coal  when 
the  minimum  scale  is  fifty-six  cents.  It  is  the  necessity 
of  equal  pay  for  equal  work,  and  the  need  of  protecting 
the  standard  of  living  that  compels  trade  unions  to  say 
to  employers,  "Either  you  shall  pay  three  dollars  to 
the  man  who  is  willing  to  accept  two  dollars,  or  we  shall 
not  work  for  you.     We  recognize  your  right  to  employ 


90         TRADE  UNIONS:  AN  INTERPRETATION 

or  not  to  employ  whomsoever  you  wish,  but  either  you 
must  pay  at  least  three  dollars  or  all  the  members  of 
our  union  will  refuse  to  work  for  you." 

In  the  course  of  an  address  delivered  before  the 
National  Civic  Federation,  Mr.  Taft,  then  President- 
elect, stated:  "Time  was  when  everybody  who  employed 
labour  was  opposed  to  the  labour  union;  when  it  was 
regarded  as  a  menace.  That  time,  I  am  glad  to  say, 
has  largely  passed  away,  and  the  man  to-day  who 
objects  to  the  organization  of  labour  should  be  relegated 
to  the  last  century.  It  has  done  marvels  for  labour, 
and  will  doubtless  do  more;  it  will,  I  doubt  not,  avoid 
the  reduction  to  a  dead  level  of  all  working  men." 

The  average  wage-earner  has  made  up  his  mind  that 
he  must  remain  a  wage-earner;  he  has  abandoned  the 
idea  that  he  will  become  a  capitahst,  and  he  asks  that 
the  reward  for  his  work  be  given  to  him  as  a  working 
man.  He  understands  that  working  men  do  not  evolve 
into  capitalists  as  boys  evolve  into  men  or  as  cater- 
pillars evolve  into  butterflies;  neither  is  he  unmindful 
of  the  fact  that  out  of  the  great  mass  of  the  people 
some  here  and  there  will  by  superior  ability,  intelli- 
gence, and  application,  and  others  by  accident,  rise  to 
positions  of  wealth,  distinction,  and  influence;  but  he 
is  more  concerned  with  the  gradual  and  general  uphft 
of  all  the  working  men  than  with  the  rapid  ascent  of 
any  one  of  them. 

Those  who  look  only  at  the  surface  of  things  and 
judge  trade  unionism  by  an  occasional  glimpse  are 
likely  to  fail  to  appreciate  the  uphfting  influence  of 


TRADE  UNIONS:  AN  INTERPRETATION         91 

this  institution  upon  the  character  of  the  wage-earner. 
Many  who  admit  that  trade  unions  have  been  successful 
in  raising  wages,  shortening  hours,  and  improving  the 
material  conditions  of  the  worker's  Ufe,  still  believe 
that  their  effect  upon  his  intellectual  and  moral  tone 
has  been  either  bad  or  entirely  negative.  To  all,  how- 
ever, who  do  not  view  these  matters  superficially,  it 
must  be  evident  that  trade  unionism  has  had  exactly 
the  opposite  effect.  The  increased  wages  and  short- 
ened hours  of  labour  have  in  themselves  brought  about 
a  vast  improvement  in  the  mental  and  moral  status 
of  the  workers.  Workmen  who  formerly  went  from 
their  twelve  hours  of  labour  to  the  nearest  saloon  now 
spend  their  time  with  their  famiUes,  improving  their 
minds  or  enjoying  sensible  and  sane  recreation.  In 
most  instances  increased  wages  and  shorter  hours  have 
meant  the  education  and  the  gratification  of  the  intel- 
lectual and  artistic  sense  of  the  workers;  have  meant 
books  and  pictures;  have  meant  a  few  additional  rooms 
in  the  house,  and  more  decent  surroundings  generally; 
have  meant  a  few  years'  extra  schooling  for  the  chil- 
dren; have  meant,  finally,  a  general  upHfting  of  the 
whole  working  class.  Trade  unionism  has  benefited 
the  worker  and  raised  his  whole  moral  and  intellectual 
tone  by  the  emphasis  which  it  has  laid  upon  the  welfare 
of  the  working  man.  The  employer  has  been  interested 
chiefly  in  the  amount  of  production;  he  has  forgotten 
the  producer  in  the  goods  produced.  Trade  unionists, 
on  the  other  hand,  have  thrown  the  emphasis,  not  on 
the  goods,  but  on  the  man  by  whom  and  ultimately  for 


92         TRADE  UNIONS:  AN  INTERPRETATION 

whom  they  are  produced;  it  is  no  longer  the  machine, 
but  the  man  at  the  machine,  that  is  taking  the  "centre 
of  the  stage"  in  economic  thought. 

Trade  imionism  does  not  stand  for  paternaUsm,  but 
for  a  broad,  all-inclusive  fraternaUsm;  it  does  not  stand 
one-sidedly  for  the  loyalty  of  the  workman  to  his  em- 
ployer, but  for  a  fair,  reciprocal  contract  between  these 
two  parties.  It  does  not  stand  for  the  recognition  of  a 
difference  in  species  between  employer  and  workman, 
but  it  insists  upon  the  substantial  equaUty  of  all  men, 
and  upon  the  right  of  the  workers  to  secure  all  they  can, 
consistent  with  trade  conditions.  Finally,  it  does  not 
accept  the  doctrine  of  the  employer  who  in  giving  work 
to  a  man  assumes  that  he  is  conferring  a  benefit  upon 
him,  any  more  than  it  stands  for  the  opposite  doctrine 
— that  the  acceptance  of  work  confers  a  favour  upon  the 
employer.  The  ideal  of  trade  unionism  is  that  of  two 
separate,  strong,  self-respecting  and  mutually  respecting 
parties  freely  contracting  with  each  other,  with  no  hmi- 
tation  upon  this  right  of  perfect  and  absolute  freedom 
of  contract  save  that  which  a  community  in  its  wisdom 
may  determine  to  be  necessary  for  its  own  protection. 

In  the  pursuit  of  his  ideal  —  the  general  upHft  of  the 
working  class  —  the  working  man  has  sought  strength 
in  union,  and  has  associated  himself  in  labour  organiza- 
tions, through  which  he  strives  to  secure: 

First:  A  minimum  wage  which  will  enable  men  and 
women  to  live  in  a  manner  conformable  to  American 
standards,  to  educate  their  children,  and  to  make  ade- 
quate provision  against  sickness  and  old  age; 


TRADE  UNIONS:  AN  INTERPRETATION         93 

Second:  The  eight-hour  workday,  which  will  give 
opportunity  for  the  cultivation  of  home  life,  the  enjoy- 
ment of  books,  music,  and  wisely  employed  leisure; 

Third:  Legislation  making  it  unlawful  for  children  of 
tender  years  and  frail  physique  to  be  employed  in 
gainful  pursuits; 

Fourth:  Laws  providing  for  the  safeguarding  of  the 
lives  and  hmbs  of  workers  engaged  in  dangerous  occu- 
pations and  for  compensation  for  injuries; 

Fifth:  The  progressive  improvement  of  the  sanitary, 
working,  and  housing  conditions  of  the  wage-earners; 
and 

Sixth:  The  preservation  of  the  constitutional  guaran- 
tee of  free  speech  and  a  free  press. 

As  a  means  to  the  attainment  of  these  laudable  and 
legitimate  desires,  the  unionist  declares  for  the  trade 
agreement,  for  conciliation  and  arbitration;  and  failing 
in  these,  he  resorts  to  the  strike  and  the  boycott. 

There  is  no  one  phase  of  industrial  life  that  is  so 
much  discussed  and  so  little  understood  by  the  average 
citizen  as  the  strike.  To  understand  the  moral  influ- 
ence of  a  justifiable  strike  it  is  necessary  to  consider  the 
ideals  of  the  working  people;  and  to  understand  the 
strike  itself  it  is  important  that  explanation  be  given 
of  some  of  the  stereotyped  criticisms  directed  against 
the  strike  and  which  are  the  outgrowth  of  prejudice  or 
of  unreliable  information. 

A  strike  is  simply  a  method  of  bargaining.  If  the 
grocers  of  a  city  should  refuse  to  sell  their  sugar  for 
less  than  seven  cents  a  pound,  and  the  consumers  should 


94         TRADE  UNIONS:  AN  INTERPRETATION 

refuse  to  pay  more  than  six  cents,  exactly  the  same 
thing  would  occur  that  happens  in  an  ordinary  strike. 
Until  the  buyer  and  the  seller  of  any  commodity  are 
agreed  as  to  price  and  conditions,  no  sale  can  be  effected  ; 
hkewise,  until  the  wages  and  conditions  of  employment 
are  agreed  upon  and  acceded  to  by  both  employer  and 
workman,  the  industry  must  stop.  The  proper  con- 
ception of  a  strike  or  a  lockout  is  that  of  workmen  or 
employers  exercising  their  imdoubted  right  to  refuse 
to  enter  into  contracts  when  the  provisions  of  the  con- 
tracts are  not  satisfactory  to  them. 

One  not  infrequently  hears  it  proclaimed  that  the 
strike  is  an  un-American  relic  of  barbarism  that  should 
not  be  tolerated  in  civilized  communities,  and  that 
those  who  engage  in  strikes  should  have  laid  upon  them 
the  heavy  hand  of  the  law.  Yet  ninety-nine  out  of 
every  one  hundred  strikes  have  been  inaugurated  and 
prosecuted,  either  against  a  lowering  of  wages,  and  a 
consequent  lowering  of  the  standard  of  hving,  or  for 
the  purpose  of  securing  higher  wages,  or  some  necessary 
improvement  in  the  conditions  under  which  work  is 
performed.  In  the  pursuit  of  these  aims  the  working 
man  is  justified  in  adopting  such  lawful  measures  as 
are  necessary  to  their  attainment.  If  the  consumma- 
tion of  these  ideals  would  make  for  the  moral  uplift  of 
the  working  man  and  the  improvement  of  society,  then 
the  lawful  means  by  which  they  are  achieved  would  be 
a  contributing  factor  in  his  moral  advancement. 

As  an  evidence  of  the  moral  influence  of  strikes  upon 
workmen,  it  may  be  interesting  to  relate  the  conditions 


TRADE  UNIONS:  AN  INTERPRETATION         95 

preceding  and  the  conditions  following  the  great  coal 
strike  in  the  anthracite  field.  The  hard  coal  fields  are 
largely  populated  by  immigrants  from  southern  Europe. 
These  men  represent  nearly  all  the  divisions  of  the 
Slavonic  race;  they  were  divided  into  as  many  hostile 
factions  as  there  are  divisions  in  the  territory  from 
which  they  came,  and  even  within  the  groups  them- 
selves most  intense  bitterness  prevailed.  To  make  a 
homogeneous  people  out  of  this  heterogeneous  mass 
was  absolutely  necessary  to  the  success  of  the  strike, 
as  it  was  essential  to  the  assimilation  and  amalgama- 
tion of  the  people  themselves.  When  the  strike  was 
called  these  warring  forces  seemed  to  realize  for  the 
first  time  in  their  lives  that  it  was  imperative,  if  they 
hoped  to  succeed,  that  they  unite,  not  only  in  the  strike 
itself,  but  in  the  acceptance  of  a  common  industrial 
and  social  ideal.  And  it  is  interesting  to  know  that  as 
the  strike  proceeded  and  after  it  was  brought  to  a  close, 
the  animosities  and  the  friction  which  had  for  genera- 
tions kept  them  apart  had  entirely  disappeared,  and 
they  became  and  are  now  a  harmonious,  united  people. 
No  doubt  as  a  result  of  the  conditions  under  which 
they  lived  in  their  own  countries,  these  non-English 
speaking  people  looked  upon  the  guardians  of  the  law 
as  the  oppressors  and  persecutors  of  the  toiling  masses; 
a  uniform  was  to  them  the  symbol  of  tyranny.  I  recall 
one  occasion  during  the  strike,  when,  for  the  first  time, 
I  visited  one  of  the  mining  centres,  a  town  in  which  the 
foreign-born  population  was  in  the  predominance. 
The  train  was  met  at  the  station  by  a  great  concourse 


96  TRADE  UNIONS:  AN  INTERPRETATION 

of  men,  women,  and  children,  numbering,  I  dare  say, 
not  less  than  forty  or  fifty  thousand  people.  In  order 
that  I  might  pass  through  the  crowd  and  reach  the 
carriage  which  was  waiting,  it  was  necessary  that  the 
police  hold  back  the  anxious  workmen,  and  after  the  pro- 
cession had  started,  to  wend  its  way  through  the  prin- 
cipal streets  of  the  city,  a  cordon  of  police  walked  at 
each  side  of  my  carriage.  I  was  surprised  to  note 
that  many  of  the  foreign  workmen,  instead  of  being 
interested  in  the  parade,  seemed  to  be  eyeing  the  police- 
men suspiciously,  and  as  it  was  growing  dark,  I  observed 
that  many  of  them  produced  revolvers  and  cudgels. 
When  the  parade  was  over,  I  made  inquiry  of  some  of 
the  English-speaking  men  as  to  the  meaning  of  this 
demonstration,  and  was  told  that  the  ''foreigners,"  as 
they  were  called,  feared  that  the  policemen  might  do 
me  injury,  and  they  felt  it  incumbent  upon  themselves 
to  protect  me.  After  the  meeting  was  over  and  I  had 
returned  to  my  room,  I  could  see  that  a  considerable 
number  of  these  foreign  workmen  had  stationed  them- 
selves at  points  from  which  they  could  watch  the  hotel; 
and  in  the  morning  when  I  awoke  and  looked  from  my 
window,  I  could  see,  stationed  here  and  there  on  the 
opposite  side  of  the  street,  some  of  the  men  who  had 
followed  my  carriage  the  night  before,  still  standing 
guard  to  see  that  no  harm  came  to  me. 

The  prevalence  of  strikes,  as  of  all  dramatic  occur- 
rences, is  grossly  exaggerated.  Tragic,  dramatic,  or 
startling  events  are  so  impressed  upon  the  mind  that 
we  fail  to  realize  that  they  are  highly  exceptional. 


TRADE  UNIONS:  AN  INTERPRETATION         97 

While  we  may  read  daily  of  the  threatened  outbreak 
of  strikes  or  of  the  declaration  of  lockouts,  the  average 
working  man  engaged  in  industries  in  which  strikes 
occur  loses  less  than  one  day  each  year  in  this  manner. 
A  strike  lasts,  generally  speaking,  about  twenty-three 
days,  but  the  average  employer  peacefully  carries  on 
his  business  for  thirty  years  without  the  outbreak  of  a 
strike. 

It  is  frequently  said  that  trade  unions  desire  strikes 
because  —  it  is  alleged  —  they  are  organized  for  that 
purpose.  This,  however,  is  not  true.  The  trade  imion 
is  organized  for  the  purpose  of  securing  better  conditions 
of  life  and  labour  for  its  members,  and,  when  necessary, 
a  strike  is  resorted  to  as  a  means  to  that  end:  but  it 
can  no  more  be  said  that  trade  unions  desire  strikes 
because  they  are  equipped  for  them  than  that  the 
United  States  government  desires  war  because  it  has 
an  army  and  a  navy.  It  is  true,  that,  in  a  general  way, 
strikes  occur  most  frequently  in  those  countries  which 
are  most  progressive,  and  in  which  trade  imionism  is 
strongest.  In  proportion  to  population,  there  are  more 
strikes  in  the  United  States  than  in  Great  Britain; 
more  in  Great  Britain  than  in  France;  and  more  in 
France  than  in  Italy  or  Austria.  In  fact,  strikes  are 
most  frequent  in  those  countries  having  the  greatest 
industrial  development,  and  in  which  civihzation  is 
most  advanced. 

It  is  admitted  on  all  sides  that  strikes  are  to  be  avoided 
in  all  cases  where  the  object  desired  can  be  obtained 
by  peaceful  negotiation:  there  is  nothing  immoral,  how- 


98         TRADE  UNIONS:  AN  INTERPRETATION 

ever,  in  the  working  man's  striking,  just  as  there  is 
nothing  immoral  in  his  wanting  higher  wages.  The 
statement  is  often  made  that  workmen  should  never 
strike  when  the  injury  to  be  avoided  or  the  gain  to  be 
secured  is  less  than  the  cost  of  the  strike;  but  if  men 
were  not  willing,  at  least  occasionally,  to  make  great 
sacrifices  to  prevent  even  small  losses,  unreasonable 
employers  would  take  advantage  of  their  unwillingness 
to  strike.  Strikes,  it  is  frequently  said,  do  not  pay; 
we  hear  it  stated  often  that  by  a  strike  working  men 
lose  more  in  a  month  than  they  may  hope  to  gain  in 
years.  It  seems  to  me  that  such  a  judgment  —  which 
is  based  upon  a  mere  calculation  of  dollars  and  cents 
—  is  inherently  wrong,  because  incomplete.  One  might 
just  as  well  impugn  the  common  sense  of  the  farmers  of 
Lexington,  because  the  cost  of  a  war  with  Great  Britain 
was  a  hundred-fold  greater  that  the  whole  amount  of 
taxation  without  representation.  There  is  more  in  a 
strike  than  wages  or  hours  of  labour,  and  a  strike  may 
be  a  loss  from  a  money  point  of  view,  and  a  great  gain 
in  a  higher  and  nobler  sense.  Said  Abraham  Lincoln, 
referring  to  the  strike  of  the  New  England  shoe-workers 
in  a  speech  delivered  at  Hartford,  Connecticut,  in  1860, 
''Thank  God,  we  have  a  system  of  labour  where  there 
can  be  a  strike.  Whatever  the  pressure,  there  is  a 
point  where  the  workman  may  stop." 

There  is  a  wide-spread  impression  that  bloodshed  and 
disorder,  riot  and  lawlessness,  are  invariable  accom- 
paniments of  industrial  disputes.  As  a  matter  of  fact, 
the  amount  of  violence  actually  committed  is  greatly 


TRADE  UNIONS:  AN  INTERPRETATION         99 

magnified,  and  that  which  is  fairly  traceable  to  the 
officials  of  trade  unions  is  almost  infinitesimal.  What 
little  there  is  should  be  visited  with  the  strong  dis- 
approval of  public  opinion;  but  the  justifiable  practices 
of  trade  unionism  should  not  be  assailed  on  account  of 
occasional  violence,  or  because  of  illegal  acts  committed 
in  its  name.  There  are  more  men  killed  on  the  Fourth 
of  July  from  explosions  or  from  resulting  lockjaw  than 
have  been  killed  in  all  the  strikes  in  the  United  States 
since  the  signing  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence; 
more  men  are  killed  in  election  brawls,  and  more  vio- 
lence is  committed  on  election  day  than  can  be  charged 
to  the  account  of  all  strikes  in  the  United  States  during 
the  whole  year;  there  are  more  arrests  made  in  the  city 
of  Chicago  or  in  the  city  of  New  York  in  one  month 
than  have  been  occasioned  by  all  the  strikes  in  these 
United  States  for  the  past  twenty  years;  and  every 
year  more  men  are  killed  and  injured  in  the  innocent 
game  of  football  than  suffer  a  hke  fate  as  a  result  of 
strikes  during  the  same  period  of  time;  yet  no  one 
would  argue  from  this  that  the  Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence is  at  fault,  or  that  elections  should  be  abol- 
ished, or  that  the  Mayor  of  New  York  or  of  Chicago 
is  responsible  for  the  criminal  acts  of  individual  citizens, 
or  that  your  Yale  College  athletics  should  be  discon- 
tinued. 

As  an  evidence  of  the  character  of  information  through 
which  the  pubUc  judgment  is  so  often  formed,  I  cite 
just  one  instance  of  reported  lawlessness  which  came 
under  my  personal  observation.    An  enterprising  news- 


100       TRADE  UNIONS:  AN  INTERPRETATION 

paper  man  being  sent  to  the  coal  fields  of  Pennsylvania, 
to  secure  information  as  to  the  supposed  reign  of  law- 
lessness prevailing  there  during  the  strike  in  1902,  and 
finding  affairs  as  tranquil  at  that  time  as  they  were 
under  normal  conditions,  conceived  the  brilliant  idea 
of  manufacturing  a  riot  which  would  furnish  the  theme 
for  a  most  sensational,  up-to-date  newspaper  story. 
He  proceeded  to  put  into  execution  his  plan  of  modern 
journaUsm  by  employing,  for  a  nickel  a  piece,  a  large 
number  of  breaker  boys,  and  at  a  slightly  higher  scale 
a  few  thoughtless  men  and  women.  When  these  people 
had  been  carefully  posed  and  the  camera  focused,  hos- 
tilities began,  and  for  ten  or  fifteen  minutes  a  typical 
riot  occurred.  After  it  was  over  the  participants  started 
for  the  nearest  confectionery  store  to  enjoy  the  fruits 
of  their  labours,  the  newspaper  man  wrote  his  story,  and 
despatched  his  pictures  to  the  metropolitan  dailies, 
through  the  columns  of  which  an  anxious  public  was 
informed  the  next  day  of  all  the  harrowing  details  of 
an  industrial  riot. 

The  trade  unionist,  whether  he  be  conscious  of  it  or 
not,  constantly  makes  war  upon  disease  and  death. 
Through  his  organization  and  through  legislation  he 
seeks  to  protect  himself  and  his  fellows  from  dangerous 
machinery,  and  from  the  contagion  and  infection  which 
come  as  a  result  of  bad  sanitation  in  workshop  and 
home,  poorly  ventilated  and  badly  lighted  houses  and 
factories,  underfeeding,  lack  of  proper  rest,  overwork, 
and  similar  causes.  Every  successful  struggle  that  is 
made  for  higher  wages,  for  shorter  hours,  and  for  better 


TRADE  UNIONS:  AN  INTERPRETATION       101 

conditions  of  life  and  labour  strikes  a  telling  blow  against 
the  advance  of  these  insidious  foes.  In  order  to  point 
out  more  specifically  the  effect  of  trade  union  effort 
against  one  disease,  let  us  take  the  cigar-making 
industry. 

In  1888;  a  time  when  cigarmakers  were  employed 
in  unsanitary  shops  and  amidst  unhealthful  surround- 
ings, 51  per  cent  of  all  the  members  of  the  Cigar  Makers' 
Union  who  died  were  victims  of  tuberculosis.  In  1890, 
49  per  cent  of  all  deaths  in  this  organization  were  caused 
by  tuberculosis,  while  at  the  present  time,  as  a  conse- 
quence of  the  progressive  improvement  in  the  condi- 
tions of  employment,  the  death  rate  from  consumption 
among  the  members  of  the  Cigar  Makers'  International 
Union  has  been  reduced  to  24  per  cent.  In  1888  the 
average  length  of  fife  of  members  of  the  Cigar  Makers' 
Union  was  31  years,  4  months,  and  20  days;  in  1905 
it  was  46  years,  10  months,  and  24  days.  That  this 
marked  reduction  in  the  death  rate  from  tuberculosis 
is  due  to  the  improved  conditions  of  life  and  labour 
secured  by  the  Cigar  Makers'  Union  is  clearly  demon- 
strated by  the  fact  that  there  has  not  been  a  propor- 
tionate diminution  in  the  number  of  deaths  from  this 
disease  among  non-union  cigar  makers.  And  what  is 
true  of  the  cigar-making  industry  is  in  large  measure 
true  of  other  industries. 

If  trade  imionism  had  rendered  no  other  service  to 
humanity  it  would  have  justified  its  existence  by  its 
efforts  in  behalf  of  working  women  and  children.  Un- 
fortunately, society  does  not  seem  to  feel  itself  capable 


102        TRADE  UNIONS:  AN  INTERPRETATION 

of  conducting  its  industries  without  the  aid  of  its  weaker 
members.  With  each  advance  in  production,  with 
each  increase  in  wealth  and  the  capacity  of  producing 
wealth,  women  and  children,  in  ever  larger  numbers, 
are  drawn  into  the  industrial  vortex,  and  the  home, 
the  natural  and  moral  sphere  of  the  woman,  has  been 
shattered  by  the  invasion  of  the  machine  and  the  fac- 
tory system.  Through  constant  association  with  it  we 
have  become  hardened  to  the  degrading  and  humiliat- 
ing truth  that  in  our  society  as  at  present  constituted, 
hundreds  of  thousands  if  not  millions  of  women  and 
girls,  depending  exclusively  upon  their  own  resources, 
are  compelled  to  work  unduly  long  hours  and  for  beg- 
garly wages.  The  trade  union  seeks  to  protect  the 
woman  morally,  physically,  and  industrially;  it  demands 
that  she  shall  not  be  employed  amidst  surroundings 
that  are  destructive  of  her  moral  and  physical  health; 
it  demands  that  she  shall  not  be  employed  at  night 
work  or  for  excessively  long  hours;  it  demands  and 
insists  that  women  shall  receive  equal  pay  with  men 
for  equal  work.  In  demanding  equal  pay  and  healthful 
surroundings  for  women  the  union  not  only  protects 
the  woman  and  the  home,  but  it  also  protects  the  stand- 
ard of  living  for  all  wage-earners. 

Even  more  important  than  the  benefits  conferred  by 
trade  unionism  upon  women  workers  have  been  its 
efforts  in  behalf  of  the  toiling  children.  It  is  hard  to 
reconcile  the  humanity  and  vaunted  intelhgence  of  this 
era  with  the  wholesale  employment  of  children  in  in- 
dustry.    Childhood  should  be  a  period  of  growth  and 


TRADE  UNIONS:  AN  INTERPRETATION       103 

education;  it  should  be  the  stage  in  which  the  man  is 
trained  for  future  effort  and  future  work.  With  each 
advance  in  civilization,  with  each  improvement  of 
mankind,  the  period  of  childhood  should  be  extended, 
in  order  that  the  men  and  women  of  the  next  genera- 
tion may  be  mature  and  developed.  In  the  factory  the 
spring  of  the  child's  Hfe  snaps  and  its  spirit  is  com- 
pletely broken.  The  outlook  upon  life  of  a  child  emerg- 
ing, illiterate  and  listless,  from  five  or  six  years  of  work 
at  deadening  and  monotonous  labour,  is  not  at  all  en- 
couraging, and  it  is  not  to  be  wondered  at  that  many 
children  with  such  a  task  develop  into  tramps  and 
criminals. 

Apart  from  the  particular  and  special  evils  of  the 
system  as  it  exists  to-day,  the  policy  of  extracting  work 
from  children  and  exploiting  their  slow-growing  strength 
is  vicious  and  self-destructive.  A  state  of  society  might 
be  conceived  in  which  poverty  was  so  general  that  even 
the  little  children  would  needs  be  drafted  into  the 
industrial  army  in  order  to  produce  enough  to  enable 
society  to  eke  out  its  existence,  but  in  a  nation  which 
has  its  millionaires  —  almost  its  bilhonaires  —  in  a 
society  in  which  production  is  so  far  in  excess  of  con- 
simiption  that  thousands  of  strong  men  can  find  no 
work  to  do,  and  in  which  we  are  building  up  a  per- 
manent army  of  unemployed,  it  but  emphasizes  the 
evil  of  a  system  which  permits  the  exploitation  and 
degradation  of  children.  It  seems  almost  an  absurdity, 
a  reflection  upon  our  intelligence,  that  women  and 
children  are  compelled  to  work  while  strong  men  chafe 


104        TRADE  UNIONS:  AN  INTERPRETATION 

in  idleness.  Thousands  of  men  who  tramp  about  the 
coimtry  and  live  off  society  instead  of  living  for  it  are 
products  of  a  system  of  unregulated  child  labour. 

Another  evil  of  modern  industrialism  which  cries 
aloud  for  correction  is  the  insecurity  of  the  worker's 
hold  upon  existence.  The  bread  of  the  labourer  is 
eaten  in  the  peril  of  his  life.  Whether  he  work  on  the 
sea,  on  the  earth,  or  in  the  mines  underneath  the  earth, 
the  labourer  constantly  faces  imminent  death;  and  his 
peril  increases  with  the  progress  of  the  age.  The  vic- 
tories of  peace  have  their  price  in  dead  and  maimed, 
as  well  as  do  the  victories  of  war.  With  each  new 
invention  the  number  of  killed  and  injured  rises;  each 
new  speeding  up  of  the  great  mechanisms  of  industrial 
life,  each  increase  in  the  number  and  size  of  our  mighty 
engines,  brings  with  it  fresh  human  sacrifices.  Each 
year  the  locomotive  augments  the  number  of  its  victims; 
in  each  year  is  lengthened  the  roll  of  the  men  who  enter 
the  dark  and  dampness  of  the  mine  never  again  to 
return  to  their  homes  and  loved  ones.  And  many  are 
killed  without  violence:  thousands  of  men,  women,  and 
children  lose  their  Hves  in  factories,  mills,  and  mines 
without  the  inquest  of  a  coroner.  The  slow  death 
which  comes  from  working  in  a  vitiated  atmosphere, 
from  inhaling  constantly  the  fine,  sharp  dust  of  metals, 
from  labouring  unceasingly  in  constrained  and  un- 
natural postures,  from  constant  contact  of  the  hands 
or  lips  with  poisoned  substances;  lastly,  the  death  which 
comes  from  prolonged  exposure  to  inclement  weather, 
from  over-exertion  and  under-nutrition,  from  lack  of 


TRADE  UNIONS:  AN  INTERPRETATION       105 

sleep,  from  lack  of  recuperation,  swells  beyond  compu- 
tation the  unnumbered  victims  of  a  restless  progress. 

However  sure  the  precautions,  however  perfect  the 
arrangements,  it  is  inconceivable  that  the  gigantic 
industrial  movements  of  the  American  people  should  be 
conducted  without  some  fataUties.  The  industrial 
structure  is  a  huge  machine,  hard  running  and  with 
many  imguarded  parts,  and  many  of  the  fatalities, 
many  of  the  deaths  in  general,  are  simply  and  solely 
the  result  of  conditions  beyond  human  control  and 
inseparable  from  the  ordinary  course  of  existence.  But 
thousands  of  easily  preventable  accidents  and  fatalities 
occur  each  year,  and  it  is  from  these  that  we  strive  to 
secure  reUef . 

In  the  United  States  the  number  of  persons  killed 
and  injured  is  not  even  counted,  but  from  the  records 
at  hand  it  is  estimated  by  the  United  States  Depart- 
ment of  Labour  that  in  1906  —  the  latest  date  for 
which  computations  have  been  made  —  between  thirty 
and  thirty-five  thousand  persons  were  killed  in  industry, 
and  approximately  not  much  less  than  two  million  were 
injured.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  however,  the  death  roll 
of  industry  is  longer  than  is  evident  from  official  figures. 
No  one  can  compute,  of  course,  the  number  annually 
yielding  up  their  lives  or  who  are  seriously  injured 
and  often  compelled  to  become  a  burden  upon  their 
friends  or  relatives,  or  dependent  upon  the  charity  and 
munificence  of  society,  who  have  come  to  their  death 
or  disabiUty  as  a  result  of  disease  contracted  in  their 
occupations.    It  is  a  strange  commentary  upon  our 


106       TRADE  UNIONS:  AN  INTERPRETATION 

boasted  American  civilization,  that  more  men  are  killed 
and  injured  in  industry  in  the  United  States  than  in 
any  other  country  in  the  world.  By  this  I  mean  that 
more  persons  are  killed  and  injured  per  thousand 
employed. 

It  is  not  my  purpose  to  decry  the  institutions  of  my 
own  country,  because  I  beUeve  that  with  all  our  failings, 
with  all  our  sins  of  omission  and  commission,  we  have 
by  far  the  best  and  greatest  government  ever  insti- 
tuted among  men;  but  I  cannot  bUnd  myself  to  the 
fact  that  in  the  matter  of  providing  protection  for  the 
life  and  the  safety  of  the  workman  and  compensating 
him  for  the  injuries  sustained  in  the  course  of  his  em- 
ployment, we  are  lagging  far  behind  the  nations  of  the 
Old  World.  It  may  be  said  that  this  is  not  a  parental 
government,  and  that  the  state  should  not  be  called 
upon  to  regulate  our  affairs;  and  while  I  believe  that 
they  are  best  governed  who  are  least  governed,  I  con- 
tend, nevertheless,  that  it  is  the  proper  function  of  a 
government  to  throw  around  the  weakest  of  its  citi- 
zens all  the  safeguards  and  all  the  protection  possible. 
Strange  as  it  may  appear,  our  courts  have  almost  in- 
variably held  that  workmen  could  not  collect  damages 
from  employers  for  accidents  occurring  in  the  course  of 
their  employment,  and  these  decisions  are  based  upon 
the  supposed  liberty  of  the  wage-earner  to  work  when, 
where,  and  under  whatever  conditions  he  may  please. 
Too  often  the  courts  have  granted  to  workmen  lib- 
erties they  do  not  want,  and  denied  them  the  protec- 
tion of  laws  necessary  to  their  safety. 


TRADE  UNIONS:  AN  INTERPRETATION        107 

In  a  letter  to  the  Exposition  of  Safety  Devices  and 
Industrial  Hygiene,  held  recently  under  the  auspices 
of  the  American  Institute  of  Social  Service,  Mr.  Roose- 
velt, then  President,  expressed  thus  his  views  upon 
the  subject  of  the  protection  of  workmen: 

"As  modern  civilization  is  constantly  creating  arti- 
ficial dangers  of  life,  limb,  and  health,  it  is  imperative 
upon  us  to  provide  new  safeguards  against  the  new 
perils.  In  legislation  and  in  our  use  of  safety  devices 
for  the  protection  of  workmen  we  are  far  behind  Euro- 
pean peoples,  and  in  consequence,  in  the  United  States, 
the  casualties  attendant  upon  peaceful  industries  exceed 
those  which  would  happen  under  great  perpetual  war. 
Many,  even  most,  of  these  casualties  are  preventable, 
and  it  is  not  supportable  that  we  should  continue  a 
policy  under  which  life  and  limb  are  sacrificed  because 
it  is  supposed  to  be  cheaper  to  maim  and  kill  men  than 
to  protect  them." 

In  the  matter  of  the  health  and  safety  of  the  workman, 
society  has  not  yet  learned  its  full  lesson.  There  was  a 
time  when  the  criminal  law  was  a  matter  of  private 
settlement,  and  a  man  could  reheve  himself  of  respon- 
sibility for  the  murder  of  his  neighbour  by  making  a 
"blood  payment"  of  so  much  money  to  the  kinsmen  of 
the  murdered  man.  Our  attitude  toward  preventable 
accidents  is  still  much  the  same.  If  the  employer  pays 
a  ludicrously  inadequate  sum  to  his  injured  employ^ 
or  to  the  widow  of  a  workman  who  has  been  killed, 
society  assumes  that  he  has  performed  his  full  duty, 
and  that  his  concern  in  the  incident  has  ceased.    As  a 


108       TRADE  UNIONS:  AN   INTERPRETATION 

matter  of  fact,  most  large  employers  relieve  themselves 
of  financial  responsibility  for  the  death  or  injury  of  their 
workmen  by  a  system  of  insurance  in  employers'  liabil- 
ity companies.  In  consideration  of  the  payment  of  a 
small  fee  for  each  person  employed,  these  companies 
guarantee  to  defend  in  the  courts  all  suits  instituted  for 
damages,  and  to  pay  to  the  plaintiffs  in  such  suits  any 
judgment  which  may  be  rendered  against  the  employer. 
Because  of  this  protection  it  is  frequently  less  expensive 
to  kill  or  maim  a  workman  than  to  provide  adequate 
safeguards  against  his  injury. 

The  commission  or  permission  of  preventable  acci- 
dents should  be  considered  a  public  crime,  an  injury 
not  only  to  the  workmen,  but  to  society  at  large.  The 
factory  and  mining  laws,  of  all  states  —  which  are  at 
the  present  time  frequently  inadequate  and  sometimes 
remain  a  dead  letter  upon  the  statute  books  —  should 
be  greatly  extended  and  should  be  enforced  with  the 
utmost  vigour,  and  when  men  are  killed  or  injured  by 
railroads,  in  factories  or  in  mines,  through  a  violation 
of  the  plain  letter  of  the  law,  the  employer  should  not 
only  suffer  in  damages,  but  should  be  Hable  to  prosecu- 
tion for  a  criminal  offence. 

In  the  pursuit  of  its  ideals,  trade  unionism  has  justi- 
fied its  existence  by  such  good  works  and  high  purposes. 
At  one  time  viewed  with  suspicion  by  workmen  and 
employer  alike,  it  has  gained  the  affection  of  one  and 
the  enlightened  esteem  of  the  other.  Slowly  and  gradu- 
ally it  has  progressed  toward  the  fulfilment  of  its  ideals. 
It  has  elevated  the  standard  of  living  of  the  American 


TRADE  UNIONS:  AN  INTERPRETATION        109 

workman,  and  secured  for  him  higher  wages  and  more 
leisure;  it  has  increased  efficiency,  diminished  accidents, 
averted  disease,  kept  the  children  at  school,  raised  the 
moral  tone  of  the  factory,  and  improved  the  relations 
between  employer  and  employed.  In  doing  so  it  has 
stood  upon  the  broad  ground  of  justice  and  humanity. 
It  has  defended  the  weak  against  the  strong,  the  ex- 
ploited against  the  exploiter;  has  stood  for  efficiency 
rather  than  cheapness,  for  the  producer  rather  than 
production,  for  the  man  rather  than  the  dollar;  it  has 
voiced  the  claims  of  the  unborn  as  of  the  living,  and  has 
stayed  the  hand  of  that  ruthless,  near-sighted  profit 
seeking  which  would  destroy  future  generations  as  men 
wantonly  cut  down  forests.  It  has  aided  and  educated 
the  newly-arrived  immigrant,  protected  the  toil  of 
women  and  children,  and  fought  the  battles  of  the  poor 
in  attic,  mine,  and  sweatshop;  it  has  conferred  benefits, 
made  sacrifices,  and,  unfortunately,  committed  errors. 
I  do  not  conceal  from  myself  that  trade  unionism  has 
made  its  mistakes.  No  institution  fully  attains  its 
ideal,  and  men  stumble  and  fall  in  their  upward  striving. 
Trade  unionism  will  not  cease  when  conditions  are 
improved;  on  the  contrary,  the  higher  wages  become, 
the  more  humane  and  reasonable  the  conditions  of  work, 
the  greater  will  become  the  need  of  trade  unions  and  the 
clearer  their  justification.  Trade  unionism  is  not  only 
negative  but  positive;  it  is  both  the  sword  and  the 
ploughshare.  The  great  and  noble  aspirations  of  trade 
unionism  will  not  blind  its  adherents  to  the  problems 
of  the  immediate  present  or  the  difficulties  in  its  way. 


110        TRADE  UNIONS:  AN  INTERPRETATION 

One  must  keep  his  feet  upon  the  ground,  though  his 
eyes  are  upon  the  stars.  It  is  necessary  to  pursue  the 
path  slowly  and  painfully,  at  the  same  time  keeping  in 
mind  the  ideals  which  will  be  ultimately  reahzed.  Prog- 
ress is  always  slow  and  accompanied  with  great  cost  in 
tears  and  blood.  Evolution  is  long,  and  life,  both  of 
man  and  of  man's  institutions,  short.  There  will  be 
recessions  and  progressions  of  the  trade  union  move- 
ment like  the  ebb  and  flow  of  the  tide;  the  movement 
will  be  helped  on  in  days  of  prosperity  and  retarded  in 
days  of  adversity,  although  the  moral  chastening  and 
the  hard  lessons  learned  in  the  period  of  adversity  con- 
stitute, perhaps,  the  truer  and  surer  progress  of  the 
two.  There  can  be  no  doubt,  however,  that  the  move- 
ment is  onward  and  upward.  It  takes  generations  to 
implant  dignity  in  the  human  breast,  but  once  im- 
planted it  is  ineradicable.  Said  Thomas  Carlyle:  "This 
that  they  call  the  organization  of  labour  is  the  universal 
vital  problem  of  the  world." 

And  now,  in  conclusion,  may  I  not  depart  from  the 
discussion  of  these  varied  accompaniments  of  industrial 
progress  to  indicate  what  seems  to  me  to  be  the  relation- 
ship of  the  ministry  to  the  problems  of  social  and  in- 
dustrial life? 

It  is  a  matter  of  general  comment  that  large  numbers 
of  the  working  men  have  apparently  become  indifferent 
or  even  unsympathetic  to  the  voice  of  the  ministry  as 
it  expounds  the  doctrines  and  the  gospel  of  Jesus  Christ. 
If  it  be  true  that  the  wage-earners  have  in  large  num- 
bers disconnected  themselves  from  the  church  organiza- 


TRADE  UNIONS:  AN  INTERPRETATION       111 

tions,  there  must  be  a  reason  which  at  least  seems  to 
them  to  justify  such  action.  There  can  be,  of  course, 
no  fundamental  antagonism  between  the  church  and 
the  labour  union,  because  each  in  its  own  sphere  works 
to  the  same  end;  that  is  to  say,  both  the  church  and  the 
organizations  of  labour  make  for  the  moral  and  intel- 
lectual uplift  of  mankind.  And  surely  the  fact  that 
the  lowly  Nazarene  was  himself  a  working  man  and  a 
mechanic,  that  he  was  known  to  have  been  in  sym- 
pathy with  and  to  have  loved  the  poor  and  the  op- 
pressed, should  make  working  men  above  all  others 
feel  welcome  and  at  home  in  the  house  where  his  divine 
truths  are  taught.  And  equally  manifest  should  be 
the  sympathy  with  labour,  yea,  even  the  advocacy  of 
its  cause,  on  the  part  of  those  who  were  commanded 
by  him  to  go  forth  and  preach  his  gospel  to  all  men. 
May  we  not  learn  much  from  each  other? 

If  I  were  asked  to  propose  a  solution  of  the  whole 
vexed  problem  of  modern  industrial  life,  I  should  un- 
hesitatingly advise  a  Hteral  application  of  the  Golden 
Rule  —  "Whatsoever  ye  would  that  men  should  do  to 
you,  do  ye  even  so  to  them." 


THE  OPPORTUNITY  OF  THE  MINISTER  IN 

RELATION  TO  INDUSTRIAL 

ORGANIZATIONS 

BY 

Rev.  Charles  S.  Macfarland,  Ph.D. 


..         O*"  THE 

UNIVERSITY 

OF 
./FORNAf^ 


THE  OPPORTUNITY  OF  THE  MINISTER  IN  RE- 
LATION TO  INDUSTRIAL  ORGANIZATIONS 

THERE  are  two  ways  of  working  with  men.  There 
is  the  method  of  approach  to  the  individual  man; 
there  is  also  the  opportunity  of  reaching  men  in  the  mass. 
We  must  use  both.  We  must  be  lovers  both  of  men 
and  of  mankind. 

You  will  keep  in  mind  that  my  task  is  to  speak  to 
you  with  regard  to  the  minister's  relation  to  mankind, 
to  human  society.  I  have  already  sought  to  intimate 
the  part  which  the  minister  may  take  in  the  realization 
of  our  democracy,  by  obtaining  power  and  influence 
with  the  varied  elements  and  subordinate  organizations 
of  men  which  go  to  make  up  that  democracy.  We 
were  dealing  with  men  in  masses,  trying  to  show  how, 
oftentimes,  we  may  gain  the  sympathy  of  large  bodies 
of  men,  often  at  a  single  stroke.  And,  it  is  to  be  re- 
membered, this  will  enable  us  the  more  readily  to  get 
later  access  to  individual  men.  I  now  mean  to  take 
industrial  organizations  as  one  illustration  of  this  oppor- 
tunity of  the  minister  to  participate  in  the  realization 
of  democracy. 

I  invited  you  to  remember  that  you  must  begin  by 
making  your  own  church,  your  own  ministry,  and  your 
own  pulpit  strong  in  order  that  you  may  have  a  future 

115 


116  INDUSTRIAL  ORGANIZATIONS 

hold  for  this  larger  work,  but  that  you  would  not  fulfil 
the  command  of  the  Master  unless  you  did  seek  to 
transform  the  entire  organization  of  human  society  into 
%  the  Kingdom  of  God.  You  are  not  simply  to  partici- 
A^  pate  in  social  movements,  you  must  become  their  guide 
and  director.  Men  must  learn  to  look  to  you  for  the 
righting  of  their  wrongs. 

I  urged  you,  first  of  all,  to  get  access  to  these  great 
bodies  of  men,  and  then  to  get  power  and  influence 
with  them  and  over  them  that  you  might  become  the 
interpreters  of  the  higher  ideals  which  many  of  them 
so  blindly  follow. 

I  reminded  you  that  other  gospels  than  that  of  the 
church  were  being  preached  and  that  there  were  other 
prophets  and  preachers  than  those  who  are  ordained  to 
the  ministry  of  the  church.  Among  these  I  mentioned 
the  gospel  of  Labour,  an  Evangel  which  is  being  preached 
with  great  fire  and  fervency,  which  is  being  industriously 
circulated  by  both  mouth  and  pen.  We  have,  in  our 
industrial  organizations,  one  of  those  several  great 
humanitarian  movements  which  go  to  make  up  what 
we  call  the  Kingdom  of  God  on  earth. 

You  will  notice  that  I  am  approaching  the  question 
of  the  relation  of  the  church  and  minister  to  wage- 
earners  from  a  somewhat  different  point  of  view  from 
that  of  my  colleague  in  this  course,  Mr.  Robinson. 
He  is  to  deal  more  with  the  individual,  and  still  more 
with  the  wage-earner  as  a  member  of  the  Christian 
Church  and  of  the  minister's  parish.  It  is  my  task  to 
show  you  how  the  influence  of  the  minister  may  be 


INDUSTRIAL  ORGANIZATIONS  117 

extended  beyond  his  own  immediate  parish,  and  how 
he  may  become  the  minister  of  still  other  parishes 
outside  his  own. 

We  have  an  incomparable  opportunity  in  the  organ- 
izations of  labour  to  reach  men  in  the  mass.  In  the 
Labour  Unions  of  the  State  of  Massachusetts,  with  which 
I  am  most  familiar,  there  are  at  the  present  time  more 
men  than  the  total  membership  of  all  the  Congregational 
churches  of  Massachusetts,  including  men,  women,  and 
children. 

But  we  are  considering  one  of  those  movements  of 
men  upon  which  there  is  a  wide  difference  of  opinion, 
around  which  closes  much  controversy,  even  bitterness 
and  warfare.  Therefore,  the  question  arises,  has  the 
minister  of  the  gospel  any  right  or  call  to  recognize,  as 
a  body,  the  organization  known  as  the  Labour  Union? 
If  so,  how  and  under  what  aspects  of  its  aim  and  work? 
Shall  he  openly  express  personal  and  professional  sym- 
pathy with  it  and,  if  so,  on  what  grounds?  You  will 
find  that  men  will  differ  in  their  answer  to  this  question; 
some  men  in  your  own  churches.  It  calls  for  a  careful 
combination  of  tact  and  frankness,  of  the  serpent's 
wisdom  and  the  harmlessness  of  the  dove. 

To  be  sure,  the  minister  expresses  open  s5Tnpathy 
with  other  organizations  and  institutions  upon  whose 
character  men  vary  in  their  judgments;  he  takes  his 
definite  attitude  towards  the  saloon  and  towards  the 
Civic  League,  and  feels  no  necessity  for  taking  an  im- 
partial position. 

Yet  there  is  a  good  deal  of  questioning,  to-day,  as  to 


118  INDUSTRIAL  ORGANIZATIONS 

what  business  the  minister  has  to  enter  upon  the  dis- 
cussion of  industrial,  commercial,  and  political  ques- 
tions. There  are  those  who  would  refuse  him  that 
right.  To  be  sure,  the  men  who  deny  him  the  privilege 
are  those  who  exercise  it  the  most  vigorously  them- 
selves, but  some  pressure  will  be  brought  to  bear  upon 
you  to  silence  you  in  these  things.  You  will  be  told 
to  "preach  the  Gospel,"  by  some  men  who  themselves 
know  very  little  about  what  the  gospel  is. 

It  was  just  so  in  the  days  of  the  slavery  agitation, 
and  we  know  to  our  shame  that  many  ministers  and 
chm-ches  yielded  to  the  pressure  and  became  mere 
lookers-on  upon  the  great  conflict.  Others  yielded  still 
more  and  took  the  wrong  side,  to  the  everlasting  dis- 
grace of  the  church  and  the  ministry. 

Now,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  any  man  who  to-day  can 
consider  the  industrial  situation  as  a  disinterested  and 
impartial  economic  student  could  pursue  the  study  of 
botany  upon  the  grave  of  his  mother.  The  whole 
thing  throbs  too  much  with  justice,  humanity,  and 
righteousness. 

I  want  you  to  get,  first,  my  point  of  view.  As  a  boy 
I  was  reared  in  the  home  of  a  wage-earner,  and  for 
many  years  endured  and  witnessed  the  wretched  suffer- 
ing of  such  homes  in  the  ''old-fashioned"  days  when 
organized  labour  had  not  gained  its  present  influence. 
Following  this  I  became  a  wage-earner.  Then,  for 
several  years  before  entering  Yale,  I  was  also  a  con- 
siderable employer  of  labour.  My  first  pastorate  was 
spent  among  wage-earners.    I  am  now  the  pastor  of  a 


INDUSTRIAL  ORGANIZATIONS  119 

church  whose  constituency  is  coming  to  be  fairly  equally 
divided  between  employers  of  labour  and  wage-earners. 
Dming  all  these  varied  experiences,  I  have  sincerely 
tried  to  gain  a  fair  understanding  of  the  industrial 
situation.  I  own  as  my  confidential  and  trusted  loyal 
friends  many  large  employers  of  labour,  and  I  have  also 
been  upon  sufficiently  intimate  and  friendly  terms  with 
the  leaders  of  Labour  Union  movements  to  know  some- 
thing of  their  motives  and  their  ideals.  After  all  due 
allowance  has  been  made  for  hasty  impulse  and  all 
other  necessary  considerations,  it  remains  true  that  the  .^ 
best  judge,  on  the  whole,  of  the  needs  and  rights  of  the*^' 
wage-earner  is  the  wage-earner  himself.  And  what  is 
this  but  to  say  that  the  poet  can  best  appreciate  poetry, 
and  the  musician  music?  What  you  learn  about  these 
men  you  can  only  acquire  by  getting  at  their  hearts. 

Inasmuch,  however,  as  this  personal  element  thus 
admittedly  enters  into  my  consideration,  I  will  refer  to 
another  note  of  personal  history.  While  seven  long, 
hard  years  of  my  boyhood  were  spent  in  rigorous  toil, 
these  were  followed  by  the  six  other  years  as  an  em- 
ployer of  labour,  so  that  I  may  also  claim  to  know  the 
other  side.  And,  here  is  a  most  significant  thing;  — 
the  prevailing  influence  in  my  profound  belief  in  organ- 
ized labour  was  not  the  earlier  experience,  but  my  later 
years  as  an  employer.  The  causes  which  led  me  into 
my  present  work  of  the  ministry  were  many,  but  not 
the  least  among  them  was  the  moral  heartache  caused 
by  the  necessity,  through  an  unfeeling  and  inhuman 
business  competition,  that  seemed  to  force  me  to  win 


120  INDUSTRIAL  ORGANIZATIONS 

my  own  living  at  the  expense  of  men  and  women  work- 
ing night  and  day  for  the  miserable  pittance  which 
business  competition  allowed  them.  And  that  is  one 
reason  why  I  came  to  Yale  Divinity  School.  I  saw  the 
need  of  the  gospel  I  try  to  preach. 

Of  course  this  does  not  mean,  and  would  be  foolish 
if  it  did  mean,  that  I  stand  ready  to  approve  everything 
that  has  been  done  in  Labour's  name  or  supposed  in- 
terest. It  does  not  mean  that  I  do  not  think  there 
ever  was  a  strike  that  was  unwise  or  wrong.  I  with- 
hold for  myself,  on  every  special  case,  the  right  of 
private  judgment.  There  are  things  to  commend  and 
other  things  to  condemn.  We  must  lead  these  men, 
not  follow  them. 

The  Labour  Unions  have  their  faults,  but  still  I  believe 
in  them.  They  avail  themselves  of  the  divine  right 
conferred  upon  human  beings,  of  making  mistakes. 
We  all  know  that  there  are  ''walking  delegates"  who 
ride  a  mighty  sight  more  than  they  walk,  just  as  there 
are  preachers  who  do  not  preach  much  and  ministers 
who  do  not  minister. 

But  the  Labour  Union  has  its  place  somewhere  in  the 
order  of  social  and  moral  evolution.  If  it  is  a  backward 
eddy,  a  reverse  movement  in  the  cychcal  process  of 
evolution,  it  will  be  left  behind  in  the  general  progress. 
If,  on  the  other  hand,  it  be  a  culmination  of  upward 
forces,  it  will  permanently  endure,  or  at  least  will  exist 
imtil  it  develops  into  something  higher  or  gains  its  moral 
ends.  A  historic  review  will  affirm,  or  at  least  suggest, 
its  moral  part  and  place  in  human  progress  toward  the 


INDUSTRIAL  ORGANIZATIONS  121 

one  far-off  divine  event  towards  which  the  social  order 
moves. 

I  will  cease  now  to  be  simply  the  plain  simple  believer 
in  the  faith  and  become  the  historic  and  philosophic 
student.  My  question  shall  be :  does  a  study  of  history 
and  society  vindicate  and  confirm  this  faith?  In  other 
words,  can  I  justify  an  open  attitude  of  sanction,  sym- 
pathy, and  cooperation  with  Labour  Unions,  upon  your 
part  and  mine?  We  will  pass  over  the  earlier  stages  of 
the  history  of  the  race,  and  begin  with  our  own  era. 
When  Jesus  of  Nazareth  was  working  at  the  carpenter's 
bench,  all  working  men,  both  skilled  and  unskilled  (and 
they  were,  then,  as  now,  the  majority  of  men),  were 
slaves.  The  moral  and  humanitarian  estimate  of  a 
man  of  toil  is  found  in  the  advice,  by  one  of  the  greatest 
of  morahsts  and  reformers  of  that  day,  to  get  rid  of 
worn-out  working  men  just  as  men  got  rid  of  worn-out 
oxen.  I  am  not  sure,  however,  that  employers  then 
were  not  more  careful  about  wearing  them  out  than 
some  have  been  since. 

Laying  aside,  for  the  moment,  the  moral  and  religious 
influences  which  entered  in,  the  movement  towards  the 
abohtion  of  this  slavery  had  its  economic  impulse  in 
the  growing  realization  that  to  make  the  workman  the 
natural  and  bitter  enemy  of  his  master  was  bad  eco- 
nomics and  bad  business.  Under  this  economic  law, 
and  the  parallel  humanizing  through  the  gospel,  slavery 
gave  place  to  serfdom.  It  was  a  higher  order  and 
worked  better,  but  was  finally  seen  to  be  transitional. 
When  we  trace  the  causes  for  its  abohtion  back  to  their 


122  INDUSTRIAL  ORGANIZATIONS 

ultimate  economic  cause,  we  find  it  to  be  the  natural 
grouping  of  working  men  for  mutual  aid  and  protection. 
The  knell  of  serfdom  was  sounded  when  the  primitive 
Labour  Union  was  formed. 

The  place  of  the  Labour  Union,  then,  in  economic  and 
social  liistory  is  this :  it  was  the  beginning  of  the  move- 
ment which  has  made  working  men  free  men.  As  its 
result  we  have  the  working  man  choosing  his  own  abode, 
his  own  occupation,  and  his  own  employer.  This  is  its 
place  in  history. 

In  its  very  methods  it  is  rooted  and  grounded  his- 
torically. Dean  Hodges  recently  said,  "The  exodus  of 
the  people  of  Israel  out  of  Egypt  was  a  strike.  It  was 
an  industrial  evolution  of  the  working  men  of  a  great 
nation.  They  stopped  work  and  betook  themselves  out 
of  the  land,  to  the  consternation  of  capitaUsts."  Of 
another  union  method  Dr.  Hodges  avers:  ''A  similar 
foreshadowing  of  modern  manners  is  to  be  found  in 
the  Book  of  Judges,  in  the  agreement  of  the  tribes  to 
have  no  dealings  with  the  Sons  of  Benjamin.  They 
boycotted  the  Benjaminites.  That  is,  the  strike  and 
the  boycott  are  implements  of  warfare  which  are  com- 
mon to  nature  and  are  as  ancient  as  hands  and  feet." 
I  know  that  strict  economists  deny  the  strict  validity 
of  the  comparison,  but  it  is  a  fair  likeness. 

But  have  these  industrial  upliftings  any  association 
with  moral  and  spiritual  evolution?  Here  are  some 
parallels  which  are  full  of  meaning.  John  Wy cliff e, 
leading  a  religious  revolution,  stands  side  by  side  with 
the  workman  erecting  himself  from  serfdom,  and  cries, 


INDUSTRIAL  ORGANIZATIONS  123 

''Father  he  bade  us  call  him,  and  masters  we  have 
none."  This  historic  economic  evolution  I  find  to  be 
the  attempt  to  express  the  spirit  of  the  Christian  Gospel 
in  the  terms  of  industrial  relations.  We  find  the  work- 
ing people  of  England  receiving  the  impulse  and  the 
instruction  for  their  trade  union  movement  in  John 
Wesley's  chapels  and  class  meetings. 

On  every  hand  we  may  see  the  clear  evidences  of  the 
close  relation  between  the  struggle  for  moral  and  reli- 
gious freedom  and  the  effort  for  social  and  industrial 
betterment;  and  thus,  historically,  the  trade  union 
movement  takes  its  place  in  the  history  of  morals, 
religion,  and  the  Christian  Gospel. 

Henry  Sterling  is  right  when  he  tells  you  that  many 
things  the  Church  has  preached,  the  Labour  Union  (of 
course  to  a  limited  and  imperfect  degree)  has  tried  to 
put  in  practice. 

Not  only  is  there  similarity  and  identity  of  aim. 
The  methods,  the  means,  and  the  weapons  are  measu- 
rably the  same.  Wherever  there  has  been  a  protest 
against  what  was  deemed  a  tyranny,  religious  and 
industrial  revolutions  have  been  inseparably  finked,  and 
it  is  clear,  from  any  point  of  view,  that  they  are  elements 
together  in  the  historic  moral  order.  Martin  Luther 
issued  the  orders  for  a  strike,  and,  in  his  theses,  posted 
the  order  in  terms  that  were  no  less  defiant  than  those 
of  the  most  virulent  of  labour  leaders.  These  orders 
found  their  deepest  response  in  the  people  who  were 
oppressed  under  the  woeful  industrial  condition  of  their 
time.    The  great  refigious  movements  aiming  towards 


124  INDUSTRIAL  ORGANIZATIONS 

a  truer  application  of  the  gospel  have  arisen  and  thrived 
among  the  working  people,  and  again  and  again  their 
voice  has  been  the  voice  of  God.  Side  by  side,  upon 
the  pages  of  history,  in  the  deepest  mutual  relation,  have 
the  revolutions  which  have  wrought  for  moral  and 
spiritual  advance  been  parallel  with  those  for  such 
things  as  better  wages  and  more  leisure.  It  is  out  of 
the  mouths  of  babes  and  sucklings  that  God  has  ordained 
strength. 

The  truth  is  brightly  dawning  upon  all  but  the  blindest 
of  employers  and  the  most  one-sided  of  students,  that 
any  system  of  industry  which  makes  the  workman  the 
sullen  obeyer  of  his  employer  is  not  only  morally  but 
economically  unsound.  The  laws  which  once  forbade 
working  men  to  combine,  and  which  made  their  con- 
sultation a  criminal  conspiracy,  passed  away,  not  only 
because  wrong,  but  because  of  their  economic  failure. 
As  an  economic  measure,  the  Labour  Union  came  into 
being  simply  and  clearly  because  it  was  an  absolute 
necessity  for  the  securing  and  maintaining  of  righteous 
conditions.  When  the  employer  became  a  great  and 
powerful  corporation,  and  the  employe  remained  a 
single  individual,  the  latter  was  absolutely  at  the  mercy 
of  the  former.  It  is  as  clear  as  the  cloudless  sun  at 
noonday  that  the  union  came  into  being  because  the 
employer  abused  the  power.  It  is  true  that  some  did 
not  abuse  it.  But  history  records  that  predominatingly 
they  did. 

Wages  were  beaten  down  and  hours  increased  with 
little  or  no  regard  to  human  health,  morals,  and  life. 


INDUSTRIAL  ORGANIZATIONS  125 

In  many  respects  the  situation  was  worse  than  the 
previous  one  of  slave  or  serf,  who  when  starved  and 
killed  could  not  easily  be  replaced.  No  sane  thoughtful 
man  who  has  read  the  history  of  the  growth  of  capital- 
istic combination  can  deny  that  the  Labour  Union  was 
an  absolutely  necessary  economic  measure  for  self-pro- 
tection and  preservation  on  the  part  of  working  men. 
A  ruthless  power  simply  had  to  be  met  by  power.  The 
Labour  Union  was  not  first  in  the  field.  It  came  after 
much  patient  submission  and  many  false  hopes  and  vio- 
lated faiths.  Indeed,  that  its  existence  is  economically 
justified  is  sufiiciently  evidenced  by  its  present  and 
increasing  protection  by  legislation. 

Compared  with  the  record  of  many  blind  and  blun- 
dering employers,  that  of  the  employed  is  to  be  won- 
dered at.  In  all  the  countries  where  the  impulse  to 
improve  conditions  has  found  opportunity,  the  working 
people  have  been  the  most  diligent  students  of  economic 
ways  and  laws.  I  have  few  employers  of  labour  of  my 
acquaintance  who  have  more  than  a  glimpse  of  the  eco- 
nomic vision  of  the  higher  leaders  of  labour,  or  who  can 
begin  to  discern  as  they  do,  the  moral  meaning  of  eco- 
nomic principles.  Great  as  have  been  the  blunders  of 
unions,  and  they  have  made  many,  they  certainly  are 
not  worse  than  the  economic  errors  blindly  made  upon 
the  other  side.  It  has  not  been  the  men  of  larger 
culture,  so  much  as  the  conmion  working  men,  who  have 
created  a  new  and  better  economic  order.  Granting 
all  its  alleged  errors,  I  know  of  nothing  in  the  history 
of  economic  institutions  that  has  more  intelligent  eco- 


126  INDUSTRIAL  ORGANIZATIONS 

nomic  law  and  principle  behind  it  than  the  American 
Federation  of  Labour.  From  an  economic  standpoint 
the  working  men  have  been,  on  the  whole,  the  leaders 
and  the  teachers  of  their  masters  in  their  crafts. 

I  have  already  called  attention  to  the  fact  that  moral 
and  industrial  betterment  have  appeared  in  history  as 
companion  movements.  There  was  something  more 
than  sympathy  in  this;  there  was  identity.  The  Labour 
Union  movement  has  a  deep,  underlying  moral  signifi- 
cance. It  is  clear  enough  that  the  innate  demand  for 
righteousness  and  justice  has  been  the  prevaihng  im- 
pulse that  has  sustained  the  weaker  side  in  this  long, 
hard  warfare.  Physical  conditions  have  their  close 
relation  to  moral  culture,  and  I  believe  the  best  of  men 
upon  the  Union  side  have  sought  and  striven  for  better 
wages  and  more  leisure  with  a  moral  aim  and  for  a  moral 
end.  In  point  of  time  the  economic  needs  of  larger 
compensation  and  fewer  hours  of  toil  came  first,  and 
as  means,  not  as  ends  in  themselves.  But  it  has  been 
the  larger  moral  aim  that  has  lent  strength  and  per- 
manency to  the  movement.  The  supreme  question  is, 
when  these  are  gained  what  shall  men  do  with  them? 
Shall  they  be  used  for  the  gratification  of  appetite  and 
indolence,  or  for  the  deepening  of  the  moral  life?  Here 
is  the  vital  question  for  the  Labour  Unions  of  to-day. 
We  must  see  that  they  answer  it  rightly.  Secondly, 
then,  it  is,  as  I  conceive  it,  ideally,  a  moral  movement. 
Its  ultimate  demands  are  moral  justice  and  righteous- 
ness in  the  carrying  on  of  business,  and  its  ultimate  end 
is  moral  culture. 


INDUSTRIAL  ORGANIZATIONS  127 

Our  task  is  twofold :  to  help  them  to  gain  opportunity 
and  then  to  teach  them  how  to  use  it  for  moral  and 
spiritual  ends.  And,  with  these  men,  you  might  as  well 
whistle  for  the  wind  as  to  try  to  guide  them  in  the 
latter  without  helping  them  in  the  former. 

Again,  among  the  most  significant  of  all  the  lessons 
of  history  is  this :  that  no  institution,  however  great  and 
powerful,  has  ever  survived  unless  it  had  a  deep,  under- 
lying moral  content.  It  is,  I  believe,  because  it  had 
this  content,  that  the  cause  of  labour  has  become  potent 
and  will  be  permanent.  My  investigation  of  strikes  has 
led  me  to  this  conclusion,  that,  in  general,  whenever  a 
strike  deserves  the  moral  sympathy  of  the  people,  it 
succeeds,  and  when  it  does  not,  it  fails.  Real  success 
is  often  apparent  defeat.  The  newspapers  told  us  that 
the  last  strike  at  Fall  River  failed.  The  newspapers 
were  wrong.  It  was  a  magnificent  moral  success.  For 
six  long  months,  with  untold  suffering,  those  men  and 
women  gave,  first  of  all,  a  magnificent  example  of 
devotion  to  a  principle  and  sacrifice  for  a  cause.  Every 
temptation  to  violence  was  incessantly  besieging  them. 
Through  it  all,  they  stood  a  splendid  example  of  Chris- 
tian patience,  fortitude,  long-suffering,  temperance,  and 
wisdom.  Whether  or  not  they  were  unwise  in  calling 
a  strike,  they  won  a  moral  victory.  I  know  of  nothing 
like  it  in  history  for  order,  sobriety,  patience,  and 
dignity  under  the  severest  provocation  to  violence  and 
disorder. 

But  has  organized  labour  won  any  great  victories  that 
were  more  than  economic?    It  has  at  least  played  a 


128  INDUSTRIAL  ORGANIZATIONS 

great  part  in  them.  First  of  all,  it  has  destroyed  that 
miserable  old  idea  of  an  inherent  difference  between  the 
work  of  head  and  hand  and  has  estabhshed  their  equahty 
in  the  betterment  of  the  world.  I  think  the  most 
damnable  heresy  that  ever  existed  was  that  the  head 
worker  belongs  over  here  and  the  hand  worker  over 
there. 

I  would  like  to  see,  and  I  am  not  sure  that  I  may  not 
see,  university  degrees  for  craftsmen.  The  Labour  Union 
has  given  dignity  to  work.  It  always  does  me  good  to 
see  a  bootblack  who  calls  himself  ''Professor,"  because 
it  is  an  intimation  that  faithful  service,  equally  rendered, 
in  one  sphere  of  work,  is  equally  entitled  to  recognition 
with  service  in  any  other  sphere. 

It  has  also  saved  the  factory  system,  as  it  has  arisen, 
from  being  a  source  of  evil,  so  that  it  gives  us,  as  Carroll 
D.  Wright  has  declared  and  shown,  a  great  body  of 
moral  strength.  Without  organized  labour,  it  would 
have  been  a  morally  pernicious  system. 

Whenever  great  national  and  world  issues  of  a  moral 
naure  have  arisen,  it  has  almost  always  been  on  the 
right  side,  and  that  right  early,  as  in  the  old  abolition 
days. 

Its  own  great  issues,  such  as  sweating,  the  sanitary 
and  other  conditions  of  labour,  the  regulation  of  indus- 
trial relations  between  the  sexes,  its  influence  in  inducing 
men  not  to  neglect  the  divine  right  of  suffrage,  its  sense 
of  brotherhood,  its  magnificent  work  in  behalf  of  women 
and  children,  are  all  great  moral  issues.  Its  splendid 
provision  for  sickness  and  death  benefits  are  both  moral 


INDUSTRIAL  ORGANIZATIONS  129 

and  divine.  Its  influence  in  obtaining  reduction  of 
Sunday  labour  has  greatly  benefited  both  labouring  men 
and  the  Christian  church.  At  such  a  point  as  this  we 
have  a  splendid  chance  to  join  forces.  Economists  are 
also  agreed  upon  its  influence  in  behalf  of  temperance. 

But  I  go  further  than  this.  It  has  not  confined  its 
work  within  its  own  confines.  When  legitimately  used 
it  protects  the  good  employer  from  his  unscrupulous 
enemies. 

Its  moral  influence  is  world-reaching.  The  binding 
together  of  the  wage-earners  of  one  country  with  an- 
other will  do  much  to  settle  International  Peace,  for 
when  thus  joined  they  will  refuse  to  fight  each  other 
without  justifiable  reason. 

But  I  go  farther  still.  When  the  political  economists 
declared  that  under  conditions  of  neglect  wages  would 
be  higher,  because  proper  care  of  men  and  women  would 
be  expensive  to  employers,  and  would  lead  to  less  wages, 
the  unions  accepted  the  alternative  and  agreed  to  abide 
by  the  issue,  if  it  should  thus  be  that  spiritual  gain 
meant  material  loss.  Again  and  again,  when  the  sup- 
posed issue  has  been  that  of  exchanging  the  material 
for  the  sake  of  higher  things  they  have  dared  to  take 
the  risk. 

Indeed,  the  very  things  that  have  been  most  con- 
demned reveal  sometimes  most  clearly  the  moral  ele- 
ment. Are  strikes  an  evil?  Yes  and  no.  There  have 
been  revelations  of  self-sacrifice  in  them  that  bear  the 
glow  of  Calvary.  Again  and  again  and  again  have  men 
resisted  the  temptation  to  profit  at  the  expense  of  their 


130  INDUSTRIAL  ORGANIZATIONS 

fellows  and  have  chosen  Christ  rather  than  Barabbas. 
I  agree  that  the  strike  calls  for  great  though tfulness. 
Yet  it  may  be,  and  at  times  has  been,  the  simple  obe- 
dience to  the  demand  of  the  Master  that  we  do  for  others 
the  things  we  would  have  others  do  for  us,  even  when 
the  application  has  been  a  mistaken  one. 

The  great  Coal  Strike  was  a  great  moral  event  and  a 
great  moral  victory.  Here  it  was : — President  Baer  said, 
"Mining  is  a  business,  and  not  a  religious  proposition." 
John  Mitchell  said,  in  effect,  that  it  was  a  religious 
proposition,  although  he  did  not  use  those  terms.  As 
Mitchell  says,  ''If  the  morals  of  a  man  may  be  gauged 
by  his  willingness  to  sacrifice,  then  the  uplifting  influ- 
ence of  unionism  must  be  acknowledged." 

Out  of  this  great  movement,  and  inspired  by  its  higher 
ideals,  a  multitude  of  things  are  developing.  I  wish 
you  could  go  to  Colorado  and  visit  the  splendid  home 
for  disabled  printers.  The  various  crafts  are  thus  pro- 
viding for  their  aged  and  infirm  far  more  thoughtfully, 
it  must  be  admitted,  than  the  Christian  Church  has 
done  for  her  own.  Witness  their  willingness  to  provide 
in  these  ways  over  against  the  grudging  way  in  which 
our  churches  respond  to  an  appeal  for  a  fund  for  aged 
ministers,  for  example. 

They  are  developing  their  own  industrial  schools 
because  Yale  and  other  great  institutions  have  been  so 
slow  in  placing  their  great  resources  at  the  disposition 
of  wage-earners  with  the  passion  to  make  themselves 
skilled  in  their  crafts,  and  thus  to  serve  the  world 
better  and  more  largely. 


INDUSTRIAL  ORGANIZATIONS  131 

Over  against  the  difficulties  that  our  Mission  Boards 
experience  in  getting  our  churches  together  to  think 
about  the  great  concerns  of  the  kingdom,  contrast  the 
international  convention  of  one  of  these  bodies,  with 
its  deep  seriousness,  its  splendid  enthusiasm,  and  its 
wise  and  careful  adjustment.  Again  and  again  as  I 
have  looked  upon  these  bodies  of  men,  I  have  wished 
that  we  could  bring  our  men  of  the  churches  together 
with  equal  seriousness  and  sacrifice  of  time  and  thought 
to  that  which  they  give  to  their  department  of  God's 
kingdom. 

In  the  town  of  Norwalk  there  stands  upon  the  hill  a 
well-equipped  hospital.  Upon  looking  up  its  history, 
in  order  to  preach  a  Hospital  Sunday  sermon,  I  dis- 
covered, not  only  that  the  labour  organizations  have 
their  private  rooms  where  their  members  may  be  freely 
cared  for,  but  that  this  institution,  of  which  our  town  is 
so  proud,  was  started  by  the  Hat  Trimmers'  Union  of 
Norwalk,  which  is  now  in  the  midst  of  one  of  the  most 
serious  strikes  that  we  have  had  for  years. 

I  find  that  these  men  and  women  are  also  very  ready 
in  their  response  to  all  appeals  to  public  spirit.  One  of 
the  things  with  which  we  are  contending  in  Norwalk  is 
the  excessive  individualism  which  characterizes  its  well- 
to-do  men,  but  among  the  men  of  labour  I  find  a  ready 
response  to  all  movements  affecting  the  public  good. 
For  example,  as  the  chairman  of  a  High  School  Com- 
mission for  the  furnishing  and  decoration  of  a  new 
building,  I  find  them  responding  far  more  readily  than 
the  more  well-to-do  organizations. 


132  INDUSTRIAL  ORGANIZATIONS 

In  all  this  one  can  discover  great  latent  moral  power. 
iThe  most  important  thing  they  need  is  to  have  their 
jpown  great  movements  interpreted  to  themselves.  Thus 
the  minister  must,  first  of  all,  come  to  see  the  splendid 
idealism  of  this  movement,  that  he  may  show  it  to  them 
and  thus  help  them  to  transform  their  means  and 
methods  to  correspond  with  their  ideals  and  ends,  and 
this  is  the  work  to  which  I  am  trying  to  call  you. 

Let  me  warn  you  against  one  fallacy.  One  of  the 
dangers  to  labour  to-day  lies  in  the  direction  of  the  phil- 
anthropic shops  and  employers.  It  is  because  some  of 
these  employers  try  to  buy  off  the  labouring  men  and 
get  them  to  forsake  their  unions,  by  offering  them 
lunch  counters,  porcelain  bath  tubs  and  ready-made 
houses.  These  expedients  can  never  satisfy  the  demand 
for  simple  justice,  equality  in  collective  bargaining  and 
the  other  mutual  considerations  which  organized  labour 
demands.  Ministers  should  not  allow  themselves  to  be 
fooled  by  the  shops  that  offer  to  coddle  labour  at  the 
expense  of  its  united  power  and  manhood. 

The  appeals  which  are  made  to  wage-earners  by  such 
men  as  Mr.  Post  of  Battle  Creek  are  sometimes  sub- 
versive of  the  larger  moral  ends  of  trade  unionism. 
They  are  constantly  appealing  to  men  to  leave  their 
unions  for  glittering  promises  which,  after  organized 
labour  is  weakened,  they  may  or  may  not  keep.  In 
making  their  appeal  they  base  it  upon  the  principle  of 
the  survival  of  the  fittest.  They  forget  that  there  are 
other  workmen  to  be  considered  besides  'Hhe  highest 
grade   workmen"   to  whom  they  appeal.    The   vital 


INDUSTRIAL  ORGANIZATIONS  133 

principle  of  organized  labour  is  not  the  survival  of  the 
fittest.    It  is  the  survival  of  the  fittest  for  the  sake  of  | 
those  who  are  not  the  fittest.    It  takes  into  considera- 
tion the  fact  of  variableness  in  the  matter  of  competency. . 
It  seeks  to  help  ^Hhe  under  dog." 

They  say  to  the  union  men  of  exceptional  and  good 
ability:  Quit  your  fellows,  never  mind  those  who  are 
getting  down  to  the  bottom  or  who  are  nearly  there; 
find  a  Dayton  or  Battle  Creek  heaven  for  yourselves 
and  get  safely  in.  Organized  labour  says,  on  the  con- 
trary, to  such  men:  We  know  you  can  do  better  for 
yourselves  by  such  recourse,  but  we  plead  that  we  all 
stand  together  until  the  other  fellows  have  also  gained 
their  rights.  On  the  whole  the  spirit  of  imionism  is 
less  selfish  than  the  spirit  of  this  appeal.  The  so-called 
welfare  employer  often  says  to  one  class  of  working  men : 
Leave  the  conflict,  desert  your  brothers,  and  save  your- 
selves. On  the  other  hand,  organized  labour  says:  Let 
us  stand  together  and  suffer  together  until  all  our 
brethren  may  gain  equal  or  proportional  privileges. 
Speaking  in  ideal  terms,  those  are  often  the  two  different 
points  of  view. 

I  believe  the  Labour  Union  has  taken  high  moral 
ground  against  the  seductive  plea  of  the  philanthropic 
shop,  even  though  it  has  seemed  ungrateful,  and 
although  some  welfare  work  has  been  thoroughly  well 
meant  and  well  done. 

There  are  also  many  imknown  or  forgotten  facts. 
Only  60  per  cent  of  the  strikes  from  1890  to  1900  were 
by  the  unions.    The  unions  are  the  preventers  of  strikes 


134  INDUSTRIAL  ORGANIZATIONS 

as  well  as  their  instigators.  Only  3  per  cent  of  strikes 
are  sympathetic.  Only  IJ  per  cent  are  in  support  of  a 
demand  for  recognition  of  the  union. 

Many  of  the  union  leaders,  for  greatness  of  mind  and 
character,  have  no  superiors  among  business  and  pro- 
fessional men.  Their  '^rehgion  of  himianity"  is  a  real, 
even  when  a  partial,  divine  religion.  They  have  some 
preachers  ordained  of  God. 

I  am  aware  that  in  all  this  we  are  dealing  in  an  ideal 
way.  Of  course  organized  labour  falls  short  of  its  ideals, 
far  short,  especially  in  many  of  its  mistaken  methods. 
But  how  about  the  past  victories  of  the  church!  How 
about  her  use  of  force!  How  far  does  she  lag  behind 
her  ideals?  We  must,  I  told  you,  be  idealists.  Thus 
only  can  we  interpret  this  movement  to  those  who  are 
in  it.  They  must  be  made  to  see  it  this  way,  and  that 
is  one  of  the  splendid  tasks  I  set  before  you. 

We  ministers  grow  tired  of  men  who  constantly 
criticise  the  church  instead  of  acknowledging  and  glori- 
fjdng  her  ideals,  her  better  self,  and  trying  to  bring  out 
her  best.  Why  should  we  wonder  if  Labour  Union  men 
feel  the  same  towards  us? 

It  is  a  mistake  to  suppose  they  will  not  Hsten  to  reason 
or  criticism.  On  the  whole  I  think  they  hear  it  as  well 
as  their  employers  do.  My  growing  acquaintance  with 
their  leaders  reveals  a  splendid  ideahsm  which  those 
who  do  not  know  them  do  not  suspect.  And  I  never 
spoke  severer  or  more  searching  words  to  men  in  my 
life  than  I  have  spoken  to  their  assemblies.  They  will 
receive  such  words  from  men  who  have  gained  their 


INDUSTRIAL  ORGANIZATIONS  135 

confidence,  but  not  from  others.  If  we  are  to  gain  this 
great  and  important  body  of  the  most  intelligent  of  our 
wage-earners,  it  will  not  be  by  beginning  with  too  much 
hostile  criticism  of  their  mistaken  means,  but  by  a  great 
ideahstic  and  open  sympathy  with  their  truer  aims  and 
ends. 

Whenever  any  definite  occasion  arises  upon  which  it 
is  clear  to  you  that  they  have  a  just  and  righteous 
cause,  you  should  become  the  open  champion  of  that 
cause.  This  does  not  mean  that  you  are  of  necessity 
to  take  up  every  point  that  arises.  I  am  referring  to 
great  and  important  occasions  when  the  course  of 
justice  is  clear.  There  are  many  such  opportimities  in 
relation  to  the  labour  of  children  and  women,  Sunday 
labour,  and  other  similar  matters.  The  use  of  the 
injunction  is  a  critical  question.  The  maintenance  of 
freedom  of  speech  and  freedom  of  the  press  is  another 
important  issue.  Arbitration  and  conciliation  is  a  wise 
course  to  urge. 

It  is  also  your  duty  and  right  to  have  and  to  express 
your  mature  conviction  regarding  the  ultimate  prin- 
ciples by  which  tliis  great  question  is  to  be  solved.  I 
mean  on  such  matters  as  the  general  right  of  wage- 
earners  to  unite  in  their  mutual  interests,  the  question 
of  profit  sharing,  and  other  similar  ways  by  which  you 
come  to  believe  an  ultimate  imderstanding  may  be 
reached. 

Certain  it  is  that  before  very  long  the  wage-earners 
as  a  body  and  the  trade  union  will  be  practically  iden- 
tical.   Thus,  if  organized  labour  becomes  estranged  from 


136  INDUSTRIAL  ORGANIZATIONS 

the  church,  it  means  the  loss  of  the  wage-earner.  And 
if  you  do  not  beheve  this,  use  your  eyes,  when  you  go 
to  church,  even  in  a  community  of  wage-earners.  Where 
are  they?  At  the  Union.  How  are  you  to  get  them? 
YouVe  got  to  find  your  way  there  first. 

Thus  the  Christian  church  and  the  union  of  labour, 
in  their  best  motives,  and  in  the  will  and  heart  of  God, 
belong  together.  And  "what  God  hath  joined  together 
let  no  man  put  asunder."  Estrangement  between  the 
two  means  the  ultimate  degradation  and  dissolution  of 
both.  The  Gospel  gives  the  impulse  and  the  aim.  The 
Union  furnishes  some  practical  machinery  for  gaining 
it.   We  must  bring  the  two  together. 

And  to  any  man,  I  say  it  unhesitatingly,  I  say  it 
solemnly  and  in  the  name  of  God,  to  any  man,  be  he  in 
the  church  or  out  of  the  church,  be  he  in  the  union  or 
out  of  the  union,  to  any  man  who  will  seek,  in  bitterness 
of  spirit,  to  separate  the  two,  I  apply  the  words  of  Jesus 
Christ:  "It  were  better  for  him  that  a  millstone  were 
hanged  about  his  neck  and  he  were  cast  into  the  depths 
of  the  sea." 

There  is  no  reason  in  the  world  why  ministers  of  the 
Gospel  should  be  behind  such  employers  as  Filene  of 
Boston  and  the  late  Mark  Hanna,  behind  legislation, 
behind  the  great  masses  of  the  people,  in  expressing 
open  sympathy  with  the  Labour  Union  in  its  ends  and 
ideals,  and  by  so  doing  placing  themselves  in  a  position 
where  they  may  be  of  influence  in  guiding  its  methods. 

But  the  most  important  question  is  how  to  do  it. 
You  will  not  find  an  open  door.    Sad  it  is  that  they 


INDUSTRIAL  ORGANIZATIONS  137 

sometimes  speak  of  men  as  being  "mean  as  church 
members."  You  will  find  that  the  union  men  will 
regard  you  with  suspicion.  They  will  often  be  even 
supercilious  toward  you.  I  have  been  insulted  by  them 
more  than  once.  Theu*  suspicious  attitude  towards  the 
Christian  church  is  largely  because  they  feel  that  it  is 
dominated  by  the  men  of  what  they  call  "the  other 
side."  Then,  too,  it  is  also  because,  as  President  Faunce 
put  it  in  his  Lyman  Beecher  lectures,  last  year,  "In  all 
questions  affecting  industrial  or  commercial  life  the 
church  has  been  strangely  silent."  Therefore,  it  will 
never  do  for  you  to  take  a  harsh  attitude  towards  these 
organizations.  You  should  not  even  correct  them  until 
you  have  gained  their  sympathy.  You  will  need  to 
learn  the  heart  and  the  conscience  of  these  men.  You 
will  then  find  underlying  it  all  a  great  moral  enthusiasm 
which  you  are  called  upon  to  guide  and  direct.  You 
will  find  beneath  many  imfortunate  methods  of  express- 
ing them,  great  ideals.  It  must  be  your  task  to  show 
these  men  how  they  may  give  a  better  consideration  to 
those  ideals  and  how  they  may  be  brought  to  pass  in 
better  ways. 

It  will  never  do  for  you  to  take  a  patronizing  or 
paternal  air.  You  must  go  to  them  simply  as  a  brother- 
man,  and  you  must  go  to  them  for  they  will  not  come 
to  you.  A  Ph.D  on  the  end  of  your  name  does  not 
induce  any  awe  and  veneration. 

You  must  become  again  an  opportunist.  You  should 
first  of  all  attend  some  of  their  meetings  and  conventions 
in  the  Central  Labour  Union,  and  in  the  national  gather- 


138  INDUSTRIAL  ORGANIZATIONS 

ings,  where  you  will  find  yourself  in  company  with  many 
splendid  men.  Whenever  they  raise  a  great  issue  that 
you  can  endorse  you  must  openly  endorse  it. 

Space  forbids  an  attempt  to  mention  the  many  par- 
ticular ways  in  which  you  may  get  access  to  the  situa- 
tion. You  should  cultivate  an  intimate  acquaintance 
with  wage-earners,  so  as  to  know  about  them  and  their 
life.  Talk  with  them  frequently.  Wlienever  you  find 
cases  of  misunderstanding,  be  the  means  of  explaining 
them  on  both  sides.  ^Bring  these  problems  into  your 
preaching.  Do  it  in  such  a  way  as  to  unite  both  parties 
to  the  issue  in  a  spirit  of  sympathy.  Remember  these 
men  in  your  public  prayers,  that  God  may  guide  them 
in  the  course  of  justice  and  wisdom.  Cultivate  union 
men  and  get  them  associated  with  your  church. 

I  must  tell  you  frankly  that  you  will  find  other  forces 
arrayed  against  you  in  your  effort  to  get  hold  of  these 
masses  of  men.  You  will  find  them,  in  the  very  nature 
of  the  case,  utilitarian  in  their  very  idealism.  The 
saloons  and  the  brewery  concerns  are  trying  to  get  hold 
of  them,  for  example,  by  showing  them  that  the  anti- 
saloon  league,  if  it  is  successful,  will  throw  many  of 
them  out  of  business.  They  have  their  Bartenders' 
Union  bringing  its  pressure  to  bear.  You  will  have  to 
be  very  considerate  upon  these  matters.  But  they  can 
be  won.  You  can  get  their  confidence.  You  can  get 
it  and  get  them  en  masse.  I  advise  you,  this  year, 
while  students,  to  get  in  touch  with  some  of  these  men 
and  organizations  in  this  city. 

But  I  must  not  forget  to  answer  your  natural  inquiry^ 


INDUSTRIAL  ORGANIZATIONS  139 

How  about  their  employers?  What  shall  be  our  atti- 
tude towards  the  men  in  our  churches  who  are  to  a 
large  extent  in  controversy  with  the  unions  of  labour. , 
It  is  at  this  point  that  you  will  require  both  the  wisdom 
of  the  serpent  and  the  harmlessness  of  the  dove.  You 
will  need  to  remember  that  you  must  play  the  part  of 
mediator  between  the  two. 

What  then  shall  you  do  with  the  employer  who,  while 
on  the  one  hand  he  gives  generously  for  the  support  of 
the  Christian  church,  on  the  other  hand  has  a  very 
bitter  spirit  towards  this  movement  of  which  you  must 
be  in  a  sense  a  champion? 

You  will  find  many  business  men  who  have  both  rea- 
sonable and  unreasonable  grievances  against  the  Labour 
Union.  Here  is  some  man  who,  in  some  particular 
instance,  has  innocently  suffered  at  their  hands.  Some 
particular  imion  or  some  particular  union  man  has 
done  them  injury  which  they  did  not  deserve.  They 
have  taken  this  particular  instance,  or  perhaps  several 
such  instances,  and  because  of  this  they  are  against  the 
whole  movement.  You  must  show  them  that  move- 
ments which  on  the  whole  are  good  are  at  the  same 
time  imperfect.  Many  union  men,  and  many  unions,  do 
things  which  violate  the  conscience  and  the  constitution 
of  organized  labour  as  a  whole.  There  are  men  who  are 
my  dearest  friends  who  differ  from  me  in  this  matter. 
This  is  the  real  test  of  true  friendship.  Men  need  to 
learn  to  love  one  another  while,  at  the  same  time,  they 
differ  in  their  judgment.  They  must  learn  to  do  it  with 
patience,  consideration,  and  sympathy  for  each  other. 


t 


140  INDUSTRIAL  ORGANIZATIONS 

It  is  to  be  remembered  that  the  sheep  are  not  all  on 
one  side,  nor  the  goats  all  on  the  other.  You  will  find 
business  men  who  will  feel  restless  because  you  address 
the  Labour  Union  meeting,  who  would  not  feel  at  all 
disturbed  if  you  were  to  speak  before  a  Board  of  Trade 
or  a  Merchants'  Organization.  They  must  be  made  to 
see  that  it  is  your  business  to  keep  in  sympathetic  rela- 
tion with  both  elements. 

First  of  all,  then,  regarding  the  employers,  you  must 
get  the  same  moral  confidence  and  personal  friendship 
of  these  men  that  you  seek  from  the  others.  If  they 
love  you  as  their  pastor,  respect  you,  believe  in  you, 
and  have  a  warm  personal  allegiance  for  you,  they 
will  bear  a  great  deal  from  you.  They  will  think  you 
are  misguided  and  very  unpractical.  They  will  then 
attribute  your  mistake  to  the  fact  that  you  have  some 
enlargement  of  the  heart.  They  will  think  that  you 
do  not  know  quite  as  much  as  they  do  about  business. 
Very  well,  let  them  think  so.  Perhaps  it  is  so,  some- 
times. You  must  be  patient  with  them.  They  may 
need  to  be  patient  with  you.  You  must  learn  how  to 
stir  their  consciences  while  at  the  same  time  you  retain 
their  affection  and  allegiance. 

The  average  business  man  needs  to  see  more  clearly 
than  he  does  the  difference  between  the  general  ideal  of 
organized  labour,  which  is  good,  and  some  of  its  particular 
methods  which  are  wrong.  You  ought  to  teach  business 
men  that  the  thing  to  do  is  to  guide  and  direct  the 
union,  not  to  crush  it.  They  need  to  be  told  that  they 
do  not  cultivate  a  sufficiently  sympathetic  relation  with 


INDUSTRIAL  ORGANIZATIONS  141 

the  men  who  work  for  them.  Many  industrial  diffi- 
culties are  caused  almost  solely  by  the  neglect  on  the 
part  of  employers  to  keep  in  personal  friendly  touch 
with  their  men. 

One  of  the  best  things  to  do  with  this  perplexing 
situation  is  to  find  ways  to  bring  the  men  of  both  sides 
together,  as  I  have  already  reminded  you.  The  min- 
ister has  a  splendid  chance  to  be  a  "mixer,"  not  only 
that  he  himself  is  to  get  into  close  touch  with  all  kinds, 
but  he  must  bring  all  kinds  of  men  into  touch  with 
each  other.  Above  all,  employers  should  be  large- 
visioned  enough  to  see  that  it  is  in  the  interest  of  their 
just  rights  for  you  to  have  influence  with  labour. 

Above  all  things,  try  to  be  fair.  Cultivate  sympathy 
with  the  difficulties  and  the  problems  of  both  of  these 
elements  of  mankind.  Do  not  abuse  business  men. 
Hold  up  to  both  of  them  their  truest  ideals.  You  must 
regard  them  as  workers  together,  the  one  with  the  same 
right  to  sell  his  labour  as  the  other  has  to  buy  it,  and 
upon  absolutely  equal  terms,  neither  owning  the  other 
as  his  lord  and  master. 

In  treating  this  subject  I  have  sought,  first  of  all,  to 
impress  upon  you  the  fact  that  the  minister  must  be  an 
idealist.  This  is  especially  necessary  in  his  considera- 
tion of  industrial  organizations.  He  must  be  able  to 
discriminate  between  the  higher  moral  ends  sought  and 
the  particular  immediate  means  and  economic  methods 
by  which  men  seek  to  gain  those  ends.  If  he  has  suffi- 
cient clearness  of  vision  to  look  through  the  clouds  that 
have  gathered  in  the  working  out  of  these  problems  he 


142  INDUSTRIAL  ORGANIZATIONS 

can  see  in  trade  unionism  a  splendid  ideal.  His  task 
and  duty  is  to  show  these  great  bodies  of  men  this  ideal, 
keep  it  ever  before  them  as  their  guiding  star,  and  to 
show  them  that  they  must  conform  their  means  and 
methods  to  it. 

In  the  second  place  I  have  tried  to  impress  upon  you 
that  at  the  present  moment  these  men  are  very  widely 
estranged  from  the  Christian  church,  that  they  will  not 
come  to  you,  but  that  you  must  find  access  to  them. 

Then  you  are  also  to  remember  that  your  ultimate 
intent  is  to  bring  them  and  their  employers  together  in 
mutual  sympathy  and  consideration,  not  simply  to 
champion  their  cause. 

So  far  as  the  church  is  concerned  it  is  to  be  remem- 
bered that  the  imion  and  the  wage-earners  are  becoming 
more  and  more  identical.  Therefore  if  it  should  happen 
that  these  great  bodies  of  men,  as  bodies,  should  be 
lost  to  the  church  it  would  mean  that  we  should  lose 
the  wage-earners  as  a  whole.  This  would  mean  serious 
disaster  for  both. 

I  told  you  that  in  its  onward  march,  democracy  had 
passed  by  the  church  and  had  gone  ahead.  This  is 
especially  true  with  regard  to  industrialism.  The  church 
has  looked  on  all  too  long.  It  is  also  true,  as  Mr.  Ster- 
ling says,  that  when  the  good  Samaritan  has  gone  into 
the  synagogue,  he  has  sometimes  seen  ministering  at  the 
altar,  the  priest  and  the  Levite  who  passed  by  on  the 
other  side,  and  some  of  the  highway  robbers  sitting 
in  the  chief  seats  with  the  saints.  I  admit  it  is  a  great 
task  to  bring  these  men  together  with  Jesus  on  the 


INDUSTRIAL  ORGANIZATIONS  143 

mountain-side,  and  to  get  them  to  kneel  down  side  by 
side  and  to  pray  ^^Our  Father."  But  it  is  our  task 
and  duty. 

During  the  week  my  eye  caught  this  editorial  in  one 
of  the  newspapers  of  the  State:  "Yale  divinity  students 
who  listened  to  the  Rev.  Dr.  Macfarland,  of  South 
Norwalk,  and  still  did  not  regret  their  choice  of  the 
ministry  as  a  profession,  must  be  made  of  pretty  good 
stuff.  He  knocked  all  the  professionalism  out  of  it, 
and,  without  robbing  it  of  its  dignity,  clothed  it  in 
overalls,  and  armed  it  with  the  implements  of  labour; 
and  yet  while  he  did  this,  he  emphasized  the  need  of  a 
broader  education  and  a  wider  knowledge  of  men. 
Plainly,  he  would  have  extraordinary  men  for  this 
extraordinary  work." 

I  need  not  accept  this  as  an  adequate  summing  up  of 
my  message  to  you,  but  I  do  accept  the  imphed  chal- 
lenge. We  do  have  in  the  modern  ministry  ''  an  extraor- 
dinary work  which  calls  for  extraordinary  men,"  and  it 
is  my  fond  hope  that  Yale  Divinity  School  may  be  the 
leader  in  sending  out  men  imbued  with  this  spirit, 
inspired  by  this  ideal,  and  ready  to  attempt  this  splendid 
task.  Men  who,  as  they  look  out  upon  the  social  order, 
upon  the  great  ocean  of  democracy  with  its  waves  and 
billows,  but  also  with  its  splendid  wide  horizon,  are 
willing  to  hear  the  call  of  the  Master  to  those  who  have 
toiled  and  taken  nothing,  "Launch  out  into  the  deep 
and  let  down  your  nets." 


THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  WAGE-EARNER 

BY 

Rev.  Edwin  B.  Robinson 

Mr,  Robinson,  a  graduate  of  Yale  Divinity  School  in 
1899,  is  pastor  of  Grace  Congregational  Church  ofHolyoke, 
Massachusetts,  located  in  the  manufacturing  section  of  the 
city,  and  remarkably  successful  in  adapting  itself  to  its 
environment  and  engaging  the  loyalty  of  the  people  to  the 
pastor  and  the  church. 


THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  WAGE-EARNER 

1  RECALL  that  after  I  had  been  engaged  in  institu- 
tional work  long  enough  to  count  many  wage- 
earners  among  my  close  companions  and  trusted  friends, 
I  chanced  to  visit  the  class  at  Amherst  College,  taught 
by  the  late  Professor  Garman.  During  the  discussion 
of  some  point  in  sociology  a  senior  exclaimed:  ^'Pro- 
fessor Garman,  it's  all  right  for  us  to  hear  these  things, 
but  what  would  happen  if  the  working  people  should 
hear  them?"  At  the  close  of  the  period  I  referred  to 
the  incident  and  offered  to  arrange  for  a  visit,  from 
any  one  of  a  respectable  number  of  my  acquaintances 
among  the  wage-earners,  to  whom  the  problem  in  ques- 
tion was  an  every-day  one,  and  who  had  read  more 
broadly,  and  thought  more  deeply,  on  the  question 
than  any  man  in  that  senior  class  had  done  or  would 
ever  be  Ukely  to  do. 

When  the  term  wage-earner  is  used  you  will  blunder 
badly  if  you  draw  your  picture  with  lines  suggested  by 
the  newly  arrived  Pole,  or  by  the  immigrant  just  here 
from  Russia.  The  wage-earner  may  be  a  man  of  wide 
reading  and  much  thought.  It  often  happens  that  he 
is  very  familiar  with  the  writings  of  some  one  great 
author.  Again,  he  may  be  a  musician,  whose  attain- 
ment reaches  even  to  the  point  of  creditable  composing. 
Among  this  class  may  be  found  men  to  whom  the  forest 

147 


148  THE  CHURCH  AND  WAGE-EARNERS 

is  an  open  book,  and  who  find  the  keenest  joy  in  ob- 
serving, collecting,  and  studying  their  treasures.  It 
must  not  be  forgotten  that  among  our  wage-earners 
are  men  and  women  doing  amateur  dramatic  work 
of  the  highest  order.  Thousands  of  them  are  taking 
advanced  courses  in  correspondence  schools,  not  to 
speak  of  the  throngs  in  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  and  other  night 
schools.  In  like  manner,  thousands  of  wage-earners 
are  daily  studying  economic  and  industrial  problems. 
Were  there  time  I  would  say  something  in  regard  to 
the  unselfish  spirit  of  true  brotherhood  which  has  in- 
spired me,  as  at  times  I  have  seen  wage-earners  take 
upon  themselves  awful  burdens  to  give  a  square  deal 
to  those  who  are  their  brothers  and  sisters  in  industry. 

I  do  not  contend  that  all  wage-earners  are  either 
good  or  ambitious  —  some  of  them,  on  the  contrary, 
are  ignorant,  selfish,  brutal.  With  them,  as  with  the 
rich,  some  are  sottish  and  bestial.  Many  are  bigoted, 
conceited,  small  of  vision,  lacking  in  initiative,  or  tyran- 
nical in  a  petty  but  exceedingly  troublesome  way. 

After  seven  years  spent  in  a  mill  city,  with  a  parish 
made  up  largely  of  wage-earners,  I  only  hope  that 
propitious  fortune  will  always  cast  my  lot  among  sur- 
roundings as  helpful  and  stimulating,  and  where  the 
opportunities  for  service  are  as  great. 

Of  the  American  working  man.  Rev.  Charles  Stelzle 
says:  "He  may  live  in  a  tenement,  but  he  is  the  back- 
bone of  this  Republic.  He  is  the  most  highly  skilled 
artisan  in  the  world.  The  American  working  man  is  an 
independent,  free-acting  citizen;  he  hates  patronage  or 


THE  CHURCH  AND  WAGE-EARNERS  149 

paternalism.  The  American  working  man  is  not  a  law- 
less revolutionist.  He  is  the  champion  of  little  children 
in  his  fight  against  child  labour.  The  American  working 
man  is  helping  to  Americanize  the  immigrant.  He  is 
breaking  down  antagonisms  that  separate  men  of  differ- 
ent religious  creeds." 

You  are  learning  from  Dr.  Macfarland  how  to  get 
hold  of  organized  labour,  and  it  becomes  my  task  to  open 
up  the  other  problem  of  relating  wage-earners  directly 
to  the  church  and  its  work.  I  will  urge  the  following 
reasons  why  the  church  simply  must  have  a  large 
wage-earning  element  both  in  its  membership  and  in  its 
leadership,  if  the  ideal  of  Jesus  is  to  be  at  all  attained. 

The  wage-earning  class  is,  of  course,  the  most  nu- 
merous class  in  society.  We  need  in  our  churches  this 
numerical  strength.  Revival  meetings  illustrate  the 
stimulus  of  crowded  churches. 

Working  people  can  be  led  to  render  financial  aid, 
which  is  badly  needed  by  the  church.  "The  great 
charitable  enterprises  of  the  world  are  maintained  by 
associated  poverty."  An  idea  of  the  muckle  in  church 
finance  which  many  mickles  might  make,  is  gleaned 
when  one  ponders  over  the  enormous  sum  collected 
from  wage-earners  by  the  great  central  labour  organiza- 
tions of  our  land.  Large  gifts  are  notoriously  unde- 
pendable,  while  a  reasonably  steady  income  may  be 
counted  upon,  when  a  great  number  of  people  give 
regularly,  because  of  intelligent,  loving  interest. 

The  liturgical  ability  of  the  wage-earner  is  well  known. 
In  the  following  words,  Beecher  praises  congregational 


150  THE  CHURCH  AND  WAGE-EARNERS 

worship:  "No  splendour  of  organ  music,  no  skill  of 
solo  or  quartette,  no  elaboration  of  beautiful  sounds, 
rendered  by  chosen  voices,  for  the  dumb  listening 
multitude,  can  compare  with  the  glorious  volume  of 
heartfelt  praise  from  the  hearts  and  lips  of  a  great 
congregation."  This  ideal  of  Beecher's  is,  among  the 
wage-earners,  far  more  often  attained  than  elsewhere. 
A  familiar  story  tells  how  disgusted  an  Episcopalian  was 
with  his  guest,  who,  attending  worship  with  him  joined 
in  the  creed  with  but  scant  skill,  constantly  lagging 
behind  the  rest.  At  dinner  the  host  exclaimed:  "For 
Heaven's  sake,  the  next  time  you  go  to  church  with 
me  descend  into  Hades'  with  the  rest  of  us!"  The 
wage-earners  know  how  to  keep  step.  They  "descend 
into  Hades"  together,  to  apply  our  story.  Preaching 
to  them  is  not  like  preaching  to  gravestones,  for  their 
enthusiasm  and  spontaneity  are  most  inspiring. 

We  must  look  to  the  working  class,  to  a  large  extent, 
for  office  bearers,  and  for  sons  to  be  given  to  the 
ministry.  In  some  wealthy  churches,  the  difficulty  of 
obtaining  men  of  wealth  to  serve  as  deacons  is  acute. 
Manufacturers  and  capitalists  are  increasingly  shrinking 
from  taking  such  positions.  In  one  city,  when  a  prom- 
inent millionnaire  was  elected  to  the  diaconate  of  his 
church,  papers  far  and  wide  gave  so  much  space  to  the 
fact  that  the  recipient  of  the  honour  felt  obliged  to 
decline  it. 

The  material  for  religious  education  is  being  found 
to-day,  largely  in  the  homes  of  wage-earners.  Sunday 
schools  of  wealthy  churches  are,  all  too  often,  notori- 


THE  CHURCH  AND  WAGE-EARNERS  151 

ously  small.  As  a  rule,  it  is  the  wage-earner  who  has 
the  large  family  of  children,  and  it  is  his  boys  and  girls 
that  are  being  gathered  into  schools  for  religious  edu- 
cation. The  scholars  in  our  church  summer  schools 
come  almost  entirely  from  the  homes  of  working  people. 
In  a  time  when  religious  education  is  not  generally 
found,  in  either  the  public  school  or  the  home,  this 
point  deserves  careful  consideration. 

In  order  that  Christianity  may  spread,  the  church 
must  have  the  aid  of  this  great  element  of  society  to 
act  as  unordained  missionaries,  to  spread  the  Gospel 
while  at  their  daily  toil.  The  mill  gives  startling  oppor- 
tunities for  aggressive  Christian  work,  such  as  thousands 
of  Christian  wage-earners  are  doing  daily.  As  "the 
servants  of  Caesar's  household"  propagated  the  Gospel 
in  the  early  days  of  Christianity,  so  are  wage-earners 
doing  to-day. 

I  must  not  fail  to  remind  you  that  in  the  working 
people  we  have  those  to  whom  spiritual  things  most 
naturally  make  the  strongest  appeal.  Other  things 
being  equal,  the  church  of  wage-earners  will  be  the 
spiritual  church.  To  the  working  people  comes,  with 
pecuhar  force,  the  prophet's  assurance:  "They  that  wait 
for  God  shall  renew  their  strength."  "They  shall  walk 
and  not  faint,"  means  everything  to  the  Christian 
wage-earner  in  the  eternal  walk,  the  grind  and  drudge 
which  is  so  vital  a  part  of  much  of  our  industrial  life. 

In  referring  to  the  church,  I  speak  especially  of  the 
socialized  type,  which  reahzes  that  its  mission  is  to 
serve,  and  where  opportunity  is  provided  for  the  exer- 


152  THE  CHURCH  AND  WAGE-EARNERS 

cise  of  latent  powers.  With  this  qualification  in  mind, 
we  must  ask  the  question,  what  special  need  of  the 
church  has  the  wage-earner?  We  have  already  made 
it  plain  that  he  is  indispensable  to  her  true  life  —  can 
she  help  him? 

The  institutional  church  lifts  the  tone  of  all  life's 
activities.  I  may  illustrate  from  what  is  a  familiar 
experience  in  my  hfe,  —  when  our  dramatic  clubs  bring 
their  plays  to  be  censored.  From  long  experience  I 
expect  that  the  manager  will  say  something  of  this 
sort:  "Where  it  is  going  to  be  given  under  the  auspices 
of  the  church,  don't  you  think  that  it  would  be  better 
to  change  it  so  and  so?"  It  is  certain  that  working 
people  need  the  higher  tone  which  comes  into  their 
amusements  and  recreations  the  moment  that  the  touch 
of  the  church  is  felt  upon  them.  Even  a  slight  famil- 
iarity with  Saturday  night  dances,  cheap  theatres,  pool 
rooms,  and  the  Hke,  emphasizes  the  need  of  a  powerful 
Christian  influence  to  be  exerted  for  the  betterment  of 
the  amusements  of  working  people,  and  the  further 
need  that,  at  least  for  the  present,  the  church  take  an 
active  part  in  supplying  clean  yet  interesting  amuse- 
ment. 

Wage-earners  need  the  opportunities  for  initiative 
and  the  opportunities  to  do  useful  work  in  the  world, 
which  the  institutional  church  supplies. 

"Work  for  the  work  is  better 
Than  what  you  work  to  get/' 

is  the  keynote  of  Mrs.  Browning's  "Aurora  Leigh,"  but 
the  lines  would  bring  only  bitterness  to  many  as  they 


THE  CHURCH  AND  WAGE-EARNERS  153 

think  of  their  daily  toil.  One  of  the  most  unfortunate 
features  of  our  modern  industrial  system  is  the  fact  that 
thousands  upon  thousands  are  doomed  to  be  but  cogs 
in  a  machine.  Year  after  year,  for  hordes  of  people,  ,  ^ 
there  is,  in  their  mill  work,  no  variety,  no  change.  Inl  | 
the  sociaHzed  church,  opportunities  to  think,  to  plan, 
to  lead,  are  innumerable.  Many  millions  are  doomed 
to  perform  work  which  is  not  interesting,  and  which  is 
frightfully  monotonous.  For  them,  the  work  of  the 
church  presents  an  adventure  worthy  of  all  their  wit 
and  daring.  It  is  idle  to  urge  that  such  industrial  con- 
ditions are  not  ideal.  They  exist  —  we  must  seek  a 
mitigation  of  the  damage  which  they  involve  while  we 
pray  for  a  solution  of  the  problem.  Among  humane 
conditions  of  employment  President  Eliot  insists  upon 
"the  opportunity  to  serve  generously  and  proudly  the 
institution  with  which  the  labourer  is  connected."  As 
things  are,  it  is  simply  impossible,  in  many  cases,  for 
sane  men  to  grow  enthusiastic  over  their  work,  or 
vitally  interested  in  it,  save  for  its  financial  return. 
To  such,  the  church  with  its  countless  doors  of  oppor- 
tunity is  a  priceless  boon. 

Wage-earners  need  the  financial  and  fraternal  aid 
which  the  church  graciously  renders.  Again  and  again 
families  have  been  reduced  to  actual  need,  through  no 
fault  of  their  own  or  of  their  employers.  The  church 
stepped  in  quietly  —  it  helped,  but  did  not  pauperize. 
The  fraternal  orders,  good  as  they  are,  usually  say: 
"Do  you  belong?''  The  church,  if  it  is  a  true  church, 
says:  "Do  you  need?" 


154         THE  CHURCH  AND  WAGE-EARNERS 

For  any  real  solution  of  the  industrial  problem  the 
working  man  must  have  the  aid  of  the  church.  The 
Kingdom  of  God  will  come  in  its  fulness  only  with 
the  aid  of  him  who  taught  us  to  pray,  "Thy  kingdom 
come,"  and  with  the  aid  of  the  church  that  bears  his 
name.  Lowell  has  finely  said:  "Christ  was  the  first  true 
democrat  that  ever  lived."  Let  me  quote  this  remark 
by  Stelzle:  "The  success  of  any  of  these  great  reform 
measures,  which  are  being  presented  to  working  men,  is 
dependent  upon  high  and  imselfish  character.  Chris- 
tianity makes  a  speciality  of  the  development  of  this 
character;  that  is  its  chief  business."  Listen  to  Wash- 
ington Gladden:  "There  can  be  no  adequate  social 
reform,  save  that  which  springs  from  a  genuine  revival 
of  religion;  only  it  must  be  a  religion  which  is  concerned 
about  fitting  men  for  their  proper  work  on  earth." 

"The  disease  of  society,"  says  Dr.  Horton,  "is  the 
lovelessness  of  men."  God  working  through  his  church 
is  sufficient  for  this  staggering  task  of  teaching  men  to 
love.  We  see,  then,  that  the  wage-earner  needs  the 
church  not  only  for  the  betterment  of  his  own  life,  but 
also  for  the  aid  which  she  can  render  in  bettering  indus- 
trial conditions.  The  church  has  done  more  than  has 
been  generally  realized  to  prepare  the  way  for  true 
democracy.  It  is  the  church  that  has  preserved  Christ 
to  the  world,  —  the  Christ  whom  almost  all  working  men 
profess  to  honour,  —  and  it  is  the  church  alone  that  can 
make  man  like  him.  When  this  task  shall  have  been 
accompHshed,  the  industrial  problem  will  be  no  more. 
Then  will  have  been  realized  change  in  conditions 
through  change  in  men. 


THE  CHURCH  AND  WAGE-EARNERS  155 

I  wish  there  were  time  to  show  how  the  church  aids 
the  wage-earner  by  teaching  him  hfe's  real  meaning, 
and  to  speak  of  the  help  which  the  chm-ch  is  rendering 
the  working  man  by  its  sturdy  fight  against  the  liquor 
traffic;  and  of  the  benefit  which  the  church  renders  its 
working  people  by  keeping  them  from  the  sourness  which 
spoils  the  fives  of  many  working  people  to-day. 

But  to  advance  —  in  what  relation  do  wage-earners 
as  a  whole  stand  at  present  to  the  Christian  church? 
The  answer  is  not  easy.  Doctors  differ  widely.  If 
Holyoke,  a  mill  city  of  mill  cities,  were  taken  as  a  basis 
for  discussion,  outside  of  the  socialist  group,  one  would 
have  difficulty  in  finding  any  special  separation  between 
the  working  man  and  the  church,  for  in  most  of  our 
churches  wage-earners  are  decidedly  in  the  majority, 
and  without  the  wage-earners  almost  all  of  our  churches 
would  have  to  go  out  of  business.  It  would  be  fairer  to 
say  that  a  gulf  exists  between  society  folk  and  the 
church,  than  between  wage-earners  and  the  church. 
Our  great  Roman  Cathofic  churches  are  overwhelmingly 
made  up  of  working  people.  I  have  never  seen  any 
antagonism  against  church  or  clergy  so  bitter  that  it 
has  not  yielded  before  Christian  friendliness.  From  all 
that  I  read  and  hear  I  am  coming  to  feel  that  nationafity 
counts  for  a  great  deal,  and  that  the  gulf  between  the 
church  and  the  wage-earner  yawns  wider  when  one 
works  among  those  of  certain  nations  who,  in  their 
homes  across  the  sea,  have  been  oppressed  by  a  State 
church.  Conditions  also  vary  widely  according  to  the 
type  of  pastors  and  leaders  that  a  church  has  chanced 


156         THE  CHURCH  AND  WAGE-EARNERS 

to  have  in  its  earlier  years.  Is  it  not  true  that  those 
who  are  trying  at  first  hand  to  solve  the  problem  are 
more  hopeful  than  are  those  who  look  at  it  from  the 
outside,  and  are  not  in  the  thick  of  the  strife? 

Washington  Gladden  laments:  ''The  fact  must  be 
admitted  that  the  wage-earners  of  this  country  are 
largely  outside  the  churches.  This  break  has  been 
steadily  widening,  conditions  are  worse  than  they  were 
ten  years  ago."  Looking  across  the  sea,  we  find  that 
Richard  Free,  in  the  fascinating  book,  "Seven  Years 
Hard,"  although  he  is  a  rector  in  the  Established  Church, 
labels  one  chapter  "Christianity  a  Failure."  Its  open- 
ing sentence  is  "Christianity  does  not  count  in  the 
East  End  (of  London),"  but  after  painting  a  noble 
picture  of  what  ideal  conditions  in  the  East  End  would 
be,  and  after  having  pointed  to  the  Master  as  the  in- 
spiration which  will  transform  that  dream  to  reality, 
he  dares  to  reply  to  one  that  says,  "It  is  a  noble  dream," 
in  these  words  of  optimism:  "It  will  be  a  nobler  real- 
ity." In  Brown's  "The  Social  Message  of  the  Modern 
Pulpit,"  we  read:  "Labouring  men  do  not  feel  that  it 
is  better  for  them  to  work  for  a  Christian  than  for  one 
that  denies  the  obHgations  of  Christianity.  They  do 
not  rejoice  when  they  learn  that  a  railway  magnate, 
in  whose  employ  thousands  of  their  numbers  stand,  is 
a  regular  attendant  in  an  Orthodox  church." 

On  the  other  hand,  Rev.  Charles  Stelzle  says:  "Never 
before  in  the  history  of  organized  labour  has  there  been 
presented  to  the  church  such  an  opportunity  to  secure 
the  interest  of  working  men  as  exists  to-day.    Whereas, 


THE  CHURCH  AND  WAGE-EARNERS  157 

ten  years  ago,  the  opposition  to  the  church  by  working 
men  was  most  bitter,  to-day  the  spirit  is  one  which  will 
permit  the  church  to  do  some  things  which  would  have 
been  spurned  a  few  years  ago.  Everywhere  thoughtful 
labour  leaders  are  endeavouring  to  secure  the  sympa- 
thetic interest  of  the  church.  I  can  see  no  reason  why 
working  men  should  not  again  rally  around  the  church 
of  Christ,  accepting  him  as  their  leader  and  champion." 
Let  me  call  your  attention  to  some  encouraging  signs. 
During  the  dreadful  coal  famine.  Rev.  Daniel  Evans, 
of  Cambridge,  did  much  good  by  going  here  and  there, 
telling  the  truth  about  the  strikers,  and  urging  their 
rights.  His  action  was  but  a  conspicuous  example  of 
the  practical  interest  in  the  working  man  felt  by  the 
vast  majority  of  our  younger  clergy.  Men  like  Doctors 
Gladden  and  Brown  are  proving  their  sympathy  by 
castigating  modem  Pharaohs,  and  by  bringing  to  the 
rich,  who  are  willing  to  learn,  visions  of  worthy  service 
which  they  can  render  if  they  will.  It  must  be  ad- 
mitted, however,  that  the  church  lags  behind  the  clergy, 
and  I  believe  the  laymen  have  food  for  thought  in  the 
following  incident.  "The  country  clergyman  is  the  poor 
man's  only  friend,"  wrote  a  rector's  wife  to  Ruskin. 
"Alas,  I  know  it  too  well.  What  can  be  said  of  more 
deadly  and  ghastly  blame  against  the  clergy  than  that 
they  are  the  poor  man's  only  friends?  Have  they, 
then,  so  betrayed  their  Master's  charge  and  mind  in 
their  preaching  to  the  rich,  that  after  1200  years'  in- 
terpretation of  the  Gospel  to  them,  there  is  no  man  in 
England  who  will  have  mercy  on  the  poor  but  they?" 


158  THE  CHURCH  AND  WAGE-EARNERS 

State  associations  of  churches  are  becoming  alive 
to  the  problem.  Compare,  for  example,  the  amount  of 
time  given  to  this  problem,  in  the  recent  meetings 
of  the  Massachusetts  Association  of  Congregational 
Churches,  with  the  amount  of  time  devoted  to  any 
other  theme,  and  the  comparison  will  prove  most  en- 
couraging. All  over  the  country  chm'ches  are  coming 
more  and  more  to  use  the  Sunday  nearest  Labour  Day 
as  a  time  for  attracting  great  congregations  of  working 
men,  and  as  an  opportunity  for  the  discussion  of  some 
phase  of  the  industrial  problem  as  related  to  the  ethics 
of  Jesus.  The  Connecticut  Conference  of  Congrega- 
tional Churches  has  just  requested  Rev.  Charles  S. 
Macfarland  to  report  to  the  next  state  meeting  with 
recommendations  concerning  the  relation  of  the  churches 
to  industrial  questions. 

It  is  pleasing  to  hear  the  testimony  of  the  lamented 
Professor  Wyckoff,  author  of  "The  Workers,"  who 
testified  that  for  months  he  went  constantly  to  church 
—  and  generally  to  the  most  fashionable  churches  — 
in  the  garb  of  a  very  poor  working  man,  and  that  he 
was  "never  received  in  any  other  manner  than  that  of 
the  utmost  cordiahty  and  friendliness." 

That  the  attitude  of  Trade  Unionists  has  changed  is 
evident  from  the  fact  that  for  the  first  time  in  the  twenty- 
six  years  of  its  history  the  last  annual  convention  (1908) 
of  the  American  Federation  of  Labour  was  opened  with 
prayer,  to  the  evident  gratification  of  its  membership, 
and  that  on  the  first  Sunday  afternoon  of  the  same 
session  a  labour  mass  meeting  was  addressed  by  a  clergy- 


THE  CHURCH  AND  WAGE-EARNERS  159 

man.  The  speaker,  Rev.  Charles  Stelzle,  was  intro- 
duced to  the  two  thousand  working  men  by  John 
Mitchell,  who  told  the  audience  that  the  opposition  of 
many  working  men  towards  the  church  was  based  upon 
a  false  idea  of  the  true  spirit  of  the  church.  At  a  recent 
mass  meeting  in  Music  Hall,  South  Norwalk,  addressed 
by  Rev.  Charles  S.  Macfarland,  under  the  auspices 
of  the  Central  Labour  Union,  the  singing  included 
"Nearer  My  God  to  Thee,"  and  "Onward,  Christian 
Soldiers." 

I  must  now  suggest  what,  in  my  experience,  has 
helped  to  make  a  church  useful  to  wage-earners.  In 
the  first  place,  its  spirit  should  be  strongly  evangelistic. 
This  point  should  be  remembered  in  connection  with 
all  that  I  shall  say.  I  am  convinced  that  the  methods 
of  Dr.  J.  Wilbur  Chapman  should  be  perfectly  familiar 
to  any  one  who  essays  to  do  the  best  type  of  work  among 
wage-earners.  This  by  no  means  implies  "the  old 
time  religion  is  good  enough  for  me"  attitude.  It 
rather  means  this,  that  a  church  to  be  of  the  most 
value  to  the  wage-earner  must  be  tremendously  in 
earnest  in  the  matter  of  bringing  men  to  definite  con- 
fession of  Christ,  and  into  definite  service  for  him.  It 
should  be  a  church  where  prayer  is  wont  to  be  made 
by  others  as  well  as  by  the  clergy.  It  will  have  a 
prayer-meeting  for  men,  held  on  Sunday  morning  before 
the  regular  service,  and  led  by  a  layman :  it  will  assert 
the  importance  of  real  prayer  in  the  mid-week  service, 
it  will  have  a  school  of  prayer.  In  a  church  of  this 
type  the  Bible  must  constantly  be  used  as  a  lifting 


160         THE  CHURCH  AND  WAGE-EARNERS 

|power.  Biblical  sermons  and  lectures  are  imperative 
pn  the  wage-earners'  church.  The  wage-earner  likes 
^biblical  preaching.  Though  we  must  not  yield  to  his 
prejudice  for  proof  texts,  we  should  make  an  effort  to 
use  biblical  illustrations  whenever  we  can  properly  do 
so.  In  like  manner,  the  wage-earner  likes  concrete 
preaching,  and,  so  long  as  the  preacher  shows  a  kindly 
spirit  and  avoids  personalities,  he  can  speak  with  great 
bluntness.  Working  men  demand  virility  in  the  one 
that  would  preach  to  them,  and  a  martial,  aggressive, 
forward  note  as  well.  The  preacher  must  be  abso- 
lutely sincere.  A  soft  spot  for  the  rich  is  fatal  —  and 
I  might  add,  for  the  poor,  either.  It  must  never  be 
forgotten  that  the  wage-earner  has  a  heart.  In  the 
theatres  where  the  better  class  of  melodrama  holds  the 
I  boards,  the  preacher  has  a  fine  opportunity  to  study 
the  proper  and  the  improper  emotional  appeal. 

There  should  be  variety  in  the  character  of  the  Sunday 
night  service,  each  Sunday  evening  having  a  special 
programme,  and  the  plans  for  a  considerable  number  of 
weeks  being  announced  in  advance.  It  is  advisable  to 
call  in  a  large  number  of  speakers  from  outside  to  aid 
in  making  these  services  noteworthy.  A  stereopticon 
is  indispensable.  A  series  of  picture  services  on  church 
history  is  very  helpful;  we  started  with  a  careful  study 
of  the  Life  of  Jesus;  then  followed  the  lives  of  the  major 
Apostles,  tracing  with  care  the  missionary  journeys  of 
Paul.  After  this  we  studied,  in  turn,  the  age  of  the 
Martyrs,  the  Crusades,  the  building  of  the  Cathedrals, 
and  afterwards  spent  some  time  with  the  Puritans  and 


THE  CHURCH  AND  WAGE-EARNERS  161 

the  Pilgrims.  After  this,  in  the  same  series,  we  studied^ 
the  modern  work  of  the  church,  taking  up,  on  the  one 
side,  the  recent  developments  of  Foreign  Missions,  and, 
on  the  other,  various  manifestations  of  the  spirit  of 
social  service.  Some  of  the  titles  we  have  used,  in 
addition  to  this  course  on  church  history,  are  as  follows : 
"The  Tissot  Pictures";  "The  Parables  of  Christ";  "The 
American  Civil  War";  "Quo  Vadis";  "Ben  Hur"; 
"Lincoln  and  Washington";  "Evangeline";  "The  Sign 
of  the  Cross";  "Westminster  Abbey";  "Savonarola, 
The  Martyr  Monk  of  Florence";  "The  Ancient  Religion 
of  the  Nile";  "With  John  Bunyan  from  the  City  of 
Destruction  to  the  City  Celestial";  "Pompeii  —  a 
Buried  City";  " Oberammergau  —  Its  Portrayal  of  Our 
Lord's  Passion";  "The  Brave  Huguenots";  "Rome  — 
City  of  Apostle  and  Pope";  "Palestine  —  The  Glory  of 
all  Lands." 

Dramatics  should  play  a  prominent  part  in  the  life  I 
of  a  socialized  church.  In  the  preparation  of  suitable  ' 
plays,  young  people  find  a  training  which  is  of  rare 
value  in  many  ways.  Besides  this,  the  relatives  and 
friends  of  the  members  of  the  cast  are  brought  into  the 
church  building,  for  they  will  not  miss  the  presentation 
of  a  play  in  which  those  whom  they  know  well  have  a 
part.  In  general  it  is  well  to  merely  seek  for  plays  that 
will  entertain,  though  Sylvester  Home's  church  at 
London,  England,  has  produced  a  dramatization  of 
"In  His  Steps."  The  Biblical  dramas  arranged  by 
Revs.  Harris  G.  Hale  and  Newton  M.  Hall,  D.D.,  may 
be  used  to  advantage;  as  was  clearly  shown  in  the  pro- 


162  THE  CHURCH  AND  WAGE-EARNERS 

duction  of  "Joseph  and  His  Brethren/'  by  students  of 
the  American  International  College. 

Outings  are  a  helpful  feature.  Trips  to  neighbouring 
points  of  interest,  such  as  mountains,  pleasure  resorts, 
colleges,  and  historic  spots  should  be  made  at  frequent 
intervals  through  the  summer.  Whenever  possible,  the 
party  should  go  on  a  special  trolley  car,  each  person 
paying  his  share  of  the  expense. 

Every  effort  should  be  expended  upon  developing  the 
musical  talent  of  the  young  people  of  one's  own  church, 
thus  accomplishing  a  double  purpose  of  bringing  to  the 
surface  the  latent  talent  and  character  of  the  singers, 
and,  at  the  same  time,  greatly  increasing  the  drawing 
power  of  the  services.  Wealthy  churches  are  sometimes 
willing  to  lend  their  vested  choirs  for  a  Sunday  evening 
each  year.  Care  must,  however,  be  exercised  lest  one's 
young  people  come  to  feel  that  their  own  usefulness  is 
imderestimated.  In  the  institutional  church,  the  object 
must  be  to  get  all  the  members  possible  to  do  all  that 
they  can  possibly  do  toward  making  their  church,  not 
a  mission  church,  but  rather,  a  missionary  church; 
where  the  general  spirit  is  one  of  service. 

The  dining-room  of  an  institutional  church  should 
also  be  used  as  a  gymnasium,  when  there  is  no  special 
gymnasium  connected  with  the  plant.  Sufficient  appa- 
ratus can  be  purchased  for  $100,  while  the  instruc- 
tion is  not  a  source  of  expense,  as  teachers  may 
readily  be  found  from  among  the  ranks  of  young 
college  graduates  or  advanced  students  in  Y.  M.  C.  A. 
gymnasiums. 


THE  CHURCH   AND  WAGE-EARNERS  163 

In  the  newspaper  the  institutional  worker  has  a  strong 
ally.  Wage-earners  are  famous  devourers  of  newspapers 
and,  for  better  or  for  worse,  a  newspaper  is  apt  to  have 
for  them,  authority.  A  pastor  should  mould  public 
opinion  by  frequent  contributions  to  the  papers  con- 
cerning moral  issues.  In  a  city  of  moderate  size,  these 
contributions  will  often  be  used  in  the  same  unsigned 
way  as  articles  written  by  members  of  the  staff.  Often 
the  attitude  of  a  paper  toward  a  reform  issue,  of  vital 
concern  to  the  wage-earner,  depends  largely  upon  the 
attitude  taken  by  the  ministers  interested  in  the  reform 
toward  the  editor  and  reporters  of  the  paper  in  question. 
No  interesting  item  concerning  the  work  of  an  institu- 
tional church  should  fail  to  reach  the  city  editor  promptly 
and  presented  in  the  proper  form.  If  it  is  "headed'' 
in  what,  through  observation,  one  has  learned  is  the 
type  of  "headers"  that  the  paper  in  question  likes;  and 
if  the  story  is  not  padded,  very  likely  it  will  be  sent  at 
once  to  the  hnotype.  Copy  should  be  sent  in  for  use 
on  the  nights  when  the  paper  in  question  carries  the 
fewest  advertisements,  and  so  can  the  better  welcome 
the  copy.  When  a  sermon  of  wide  public  interest  is 
preached,  a  brief  abstract  should  be  sent  at  once  to  the 
city  editor.  The  pastor  of  a  working  people's  churcli 
should  subscribe  to  the  official  organ  of  the  Central 
Labour  Union,  and  should  contribute  to  it  as  time  will 
allow.  Institutional  work  appeals  to  most  editors,  and 
they  like  to  have  handed  to  them  photographs  illus- 
trating unusual  features,  from  which  cuts  can  be  made. 
Church  news  is  news  of  the  first  magnitude  —  the  plans 


164  THE  CHURCH  AND  WAGE-EARNERS 

and  work  of  a  church  can  never  be  so  holy  that  proper 
publicity  will  degrade  them. 

While  the  church  is  eager  to  aid  in  making  true  Amer- 
icans, it  is  desirous  that  the  adopted  American  citizen 
should  retain  the  good  in  his  own  national  heritage.  It 
is  best  that  those  of  each  nationality  should  be  at  least 
somewhat  familiar  with  the  religious  heritage  of  those 
of  every  other  nationality  largely  represented  in  our 
population.  It  is  well,  for  example,  to  hold  a  service 
to  which  all  the  English  orders  in  the  city  are  invited, 
the  sermon  being  possibly  on  ^'England's  Contribution 
to  the  World's  Religious  Life.''  A  similar  Scotch  service 
might  lead  a  pastor  to  preach  on  ''Knox,  Livingstone, 
Drummond  —  Scotch  Ambassadors  of  Christ."  In  a 
cosmopolitan  parish  it  would  be  well  to  have  a  German 
night,  Luther's  life  being  made  vivid  by  the  aid  of  pic- 
tures. In  such  a  parish  there  should  be,  some  evening, 
a  lecture  on  Dante;  if  possible,  by  such  an  interpreter 
as  Dr.  Charles  A.  Dinsmore,  and  at  that  service  it  would 
be  well  to  have  an  Italian  musician  aid  with  the  music. 
Where  there  are  a  large  number  of  Hebrews  in  the 
vicinity  of  a  church,  it  would  be  advisable  to  have  a 
Jew  for  the  orator  on  the  Sunday  evening  nearest  the 
Fourth  of  July,  and  his  theme  might  well  be  ''An 
Adopted  Citizen's  Love  for  Old  Glory."  In  ways  like 
these,  the  love  and  respect  of  adopted  citizens  can  be 
gained  for  the  church  in  the  new  land,  while,  at  the 
same  time,  we  inculcate  the  spirit  of  brotherhood  and 
teach  respect  for  the  heritage  and  achievements  of 
those  of  all  nations.    An  English  Tea  Party;  a  German 


THE  CHURCH  AND  WAGE-EARNERS  165 

Supper,  and  a  Scotch  Soiree  should  be  on  the  programme 
of  social  events  in  a  parish  made  up  of  people  from 
many  lands. 

If  a  minister  is  to  do  successful  work  among  wage-, 
earners,  he  must  be  willing  to  speak  at  mill  meetings, 
and  at  out-of-door  services  held  in  the  parks  during  the 
summer.  In  ways  like  these  the  toilers  come  to  feel  an 
interest  in  him  and  in  his  message,  with  the  almost 
certain  result  that  if  he  makes  good  they  will,  sooner 
or  later,  visit  his  church. 

No  pastor  of  a  wage-earner's  church  should  be  im- 
familiar  with  the  following  vote  passed  by  the  American 
Federation  of  Labour: 

"Resolved:  that  the  American  Federation  of  Labour 
recommends  that  all  affiliated  state  and  central  bodies 
exchange  fraternal  delegates  with  the  various  state  and 
city  ministerial  associations,  wherever  practicable,  thus 
assuring  a  better  understanding  on  the  part  of  the 
church  and  the  clergy,  of  the  aims  and  objects  of  the 
Labour  Union  movement  in  America." 

When  there  is  a  college  within  a  radius  of  a  dozen 
miles,  the  aid  of  its  students  should  be  invoked  to  assist 
in  making  successful  the  institutional  features.  Work 
of  this  sort  not  only  enables  a  church  to  broaden  the 
range  of  its  activities,  but  also  enables  the  students  to 
keep  their  balance,  and  to  retain  contact  with  real 
life.  Members  of  the  faculty  can  also  aid  by  giving 
occasional  lectures  before  various  clubs  and  classes. 

At  the  start,  in  a  conservative  community,  three 
stock  objections  will  be  urged  against  the  methods 


166         THE  CHURCH  AND  WAGE-EARNERS 

which  I  have  mentioned.  Some  man  will  urge:  "It 
will  not  do  to  have  the  chm*ch  open  every  night.  We 
cannot  meet  the  expense;  we  shall  need  a  policeman; 
all  our  furniture  will  be  destroyed."  Experience  proves 
that  the  bills  for  fuel  and  light  are  not  surprisingly 
large,  that  property  is  not  destroyed  to  any  serious 
extent,  and  that,  on  the  other  hand,  after  such  methods 
are  adopted,  the  revenue  of  a  church  increases  mate- 
rially. Most  people  appreciate  the  spirit  of  service 
displayed  by  an  institutional  church.  Another  objector 
will  urge:  "It  is  not  right  to  have  anything  but  worship 
in  a  church  building."  Here  the  "baked  bean"  proves 
our  salvation.  "How  about  suppers?"  we  reply. 
About  the  only  answer  that  can  be  made  to  this  ques- 
tion is,  "Well,  all  churches  have  them."  Another  will 
urge:  "If  we  only  had  a  parish  house,  it  would  be  all 
right  to  use  these  methods,  but  it  is  certainly  wrong  to 
use  the  basement  of  a  church  building  as  a  gymnasium 
or  as  a  theatre."  Our  reply  will  be:  "Stop  fooling  with 
God's  business.  What  difference  is  there  between 
having  your  parish  house  beside  the  auditorium  or 
beneath  it?  The  greatest  difference  is,  that,  in  the 
latter  case,  you  avoid  wasting  money  sorely  needed 
for  the  extension  of  the  Kingdom."  The  true  institu- 
tional church  goes  to  extremes  in  teaching  reverence 
for  its  auditorium.  In  one  institutional  church  there 
has  been  placed  on  the  wall  a  Worship  Tablet  bearing 
the  following  inscription : 

ON  YOUR  WAY  TO  THE  LORD's  HOUSE 
BE  THOUGHTFUL,  BE  SILENT;  OR  SAY 


THE  CHURCH  AND  WAGE-EARNERS  167 

BUT  LITTLE,  AND  THAT  LITTLE  GOOD. 

SPEAK  NOT  OF  OTHER  MEN's  FAULTS  — 

THINK  OF  YOUR  OWN  —  FOR  YOU  ARE  GOING  TO  ASK 

FORGIVENESS. 

WHEN  YOU  REACH  THE  CHURCH  NEVER  STAY 

outside;  go  in  at  once,      time  spent  WITHIN 

IS  exceeding  precious. 

IN  CHURCH,  BOW  DOWN  AT  ONCE,  VERY  HUMBLY, 
AND  PRAY.      SPEND  THE  TIME  THAT  REMAINS  IN 
HOLY  THOUGHT. 

IN  PRAYER,  REMEMBER  THE  PRESENCE  INTO 
WHICH  YOU  HAVE  COME !      NEVER  LOOK  ABOUT 
YOU  TO  SEE  WHO  ARE  COMING  IN,  OR  FOR  ANY 
CAUSE  WHATEVER.      IT  MATTERS  NOTHING  TO  YOU 
WHAT  OTHERS  MAY  BE  DOING;  ATTEND  TO  YOURSELF; 
FASTEN  YOUR  THOUGHTS  FIRMLY  ON  THE  HOLY  SER- 
VICE ;  MISS  NOT  ONE  WORD.      THIS  NEEDS  A  SEVERE 
STRUGGLE,  SO  YOU  HAVE  NO  TIME  FOR  VAIN  THINGS. 
THE  BLESSED  SPIRIT  WILL  STRENGTHEN  YOU  IF 
YOU  PERSEVERE. 

DO  NOT  COVER  YOUR  HEAD  UNTIL  YOU  ARE  OUTSIDE 
—  THE  CHURCH  IS  GOD's  HOUSE,  EVEN  WHEN 
PRAYER  IS  OVER. 

ON  YOUR  WAY  HOME,  BE  CAREFUL  OF  YOUR  TALK; 
THE  WORLD  WILL  TOO  SOON  SLIP  BACK  INTO  YOUB 
MIND. 

LOVE  PRAYER  AND  PRAISE  BEST;  PREACHING  IS 
BUT  THE  HELP  TO  THAT  HEAVENLY  WORK. 

Sometimes  still  another  objection  is  raised  to  these 
methods.  "Is  not,"  they  question,  "the  institutional 
church  a  worldly,  unspiritual  church?"  I  will  recall  to 
you  Washington  Gladden's  comment  on  this  objection : 
"Is  it  true  that  the  reUgious  life  of  the  churches  adopt- 
ing these  measures  has  been  weakened?    The  testimony 


168  THE  CHURCH  AND  WAGE-EARNERS 

seems  to  be  clear  that  such  is  not  the  case.  The  preach- 
ing of  most  of  these  pulpits  is  said  to  be  exceptionally 
fruitful  in  the  presentation  of  spiritual  truths;  the 
percentage  of  additions  to  these  churches  by  conversion 
is  far  larger  than  is  the  average  in  the  other  churches 
in  the  country."  The  church  must  come  to  realize 
that  Christ  came  to  redeem  the  entire  personality.  He 
abolished  the  distinction  between  the  sacred  and  the 
secular.  The  sanctification  of  all  life  is  the  great  busi- 
ness  of  the  church. 

Contact  with  aggressive  Christians  which  comes  about 
through  the  use  of  these  methods,  results  inevitably  in 
constant  additions  to  church  membership,  and  also  by 
contagion,  produces  a  splendid  corps  of  church  workers. 
"Character  is  more  effectively  moulded  by  frequent 
\  touches/' 


THE  OPPORTUNITY  AND  THE  MISSION  OF 
THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  MINISTRY 
AMONG  NON-ENGLISH-SPEAKING 
PEOPLE 

BY 

Rev.  Ozora  S.  Davis,  D.D, 

President  Davis  was  until  recently  the  pastor  of  the 
South  Congregational  Church,  of  New  Britain,  Connecti- 
cut, and  the  director  of  its  comprehensive  work  among 
the  large  foreign-bom  population  of  the  city. 


THE  OPPORTUNITY  AND  THE  MISSION  OF  THE 
CHURCH  AND  THE  MINISTRY  AMONG  NON- 
ENGLISH-SPEAKING  PEOPLE. 

THE  Christian  churches  of  America  are  facing  a 
unique  opportunity  and  privilege  in  the  work 
of  giving  adequate  religious  care  to  the  immigrant 
population  which  is  seeking  a  home  in  the  United 
States.  It  is  better  to  consider  this  in  the  light  of  an 
opportunity  rather  than  to  discuss  it  as  a  problem. 

The  purpose  of  these  lectures  is  to  outhne  the  ex- 
tent of  the  opportunity  and  to  offer  certain  sugges- 
tions as  to  the  way  in  which  it  may  be  met  by  the 
minister  and  the  church. 

The  popular  interest  in  the  svibjed  is  remarkable.  — 
Our  churches  and  people  have  been  growing  keenly 
interested  in  it  during  the  past  three  years.  There 
is  an  element  of  romance  and  of  the  heroic  and  novel 
thrown  about  it  all.  It  offers  a  pleasant  relief  from  the 
routine  of  the  ordinary  appeals  made  in  our  churches. 
This  is  encouraging,  since  it  shows  that  the  church 
is  loyal  to  the  claims  of  the  kingdom  of  Christ  in  all 
its  relationships.  It  gives  a  basis  upon  which  a  min- 
ister can  build  as  he  strives  to  lead  his  church  into 
new  lines  of  service. 

When  we  come  to  explore  the  depth  of  this  inter- 

171 


172 


WORK  AMONG  IMMIGRANTS 


est;  however,  we  discover  that  when  it  is  brought 
squarely  up  to  the  stern  demand  of  service  it  has  a 
tendency  to  wane  quickly.  It  is  too  academic  and 
emotional.  The  difficulty  lies  in  the  seriousness  of 
the  work  which  is  to  be  done.  No  passing  sentiment 
is  sufficient  warrant  for  the  business  in  hand,  when  the 
Protestant  church  sets  itself  to  the  religious  care  of  the 
foreign-speaking  people.  Ministers  must  recognize 
both  the  worth  and  the  worthlessness  of  the  present 
interest  in  the  foreigner. 

There  are  new  factors  in  the  immigration  of  to-day.  — 
There  has  come  a  somewhat  radical  change  over  the 
character  of  recent  immigration  and  the  work  before 
the  churches  is  greatly  changed  if  it  is  not  essentially 
modified.  This  is  shown  by  a  slight  study  of  the  rec- 
ords of  the  ports  of  entry.  Let  us  take  the  records  of 
four  of  these  as  they  have  to  do  with  the  source  of 
recent  immigration. 


Port 

Per  cent  from  N.  W. 
Europe 

Per  cent  from  S.  E . 
Europe 

Philadelphia   

30 

1 

45 

20 

70 

Baltimore 

99 

Boston 

49 

New  York  

75 

A  still  more  instructive  study  of  conditions  may  be 
made  by  taking  a  map  of  continental  Europe  and 
drawing  a  line  from  Genoa  to  St.  Petersburg.  Such 
a  line  passes  near  the  boundaries  of  Austro-Hungary, 


WORK  AMONG  IMMIGRANTS  173 

Germany,  and  Russia,  and  divides  the  land  mass  of 
the  continent  into  two  sections  which  we  may  desig- 
nate northwestern  and  southeastern  Europe. 

In  the  year  1906  there  came  to  us  from  northwestern 
Europe  only  twenty  [and  one  half]  per  cent  of  the  im- 
migration of  the  year;  while  from  southeastern  Europe 
came  seventy-one  [and  a  little  over  a  half]  per  cent. 
Other  countries  gave  us  less  than  eight  per  cent  of  the 
total  influx.  It  takes  but  a  very  superficial  glance  to 
show  how  very  significant  is  this  change  in  the  sources 
of  immigration  supply.  In  the  northwestern  section 
of  Europe  lies  the  home  of  the  Scandinavian  and  the 
Teutonic  races.  Here  is  the  ancient  fatherland  back 
to  which  the  great  majority  of  the  modern  Americans 
trace  their  origin.  Here  is  the  home  of  those  political 
ideals  and  peculiar  moral  sanctions  which  have  been 
wrought  into  our  political  institutions.  Here,  too,  is 
the  home  of  the  religious  systems  that  grew  out  of  the 
Reformation  and  have  survived  with  the  greatest  vigour 
and  effectiveness. 

On  the  other  hand,  when  we  turn  to  the  countries 
that  lie  in  the  southeastern  section  we  find  that  we  are 
in  a  strange  atmosphere.  Here  are  the  difficult  lan- 
guages whose  mastery  by  us  is  well-nigh  impossible. 
Here  are  the  despotic  governments  and  the  surviving 
institutions  of  the  middle  age.  At  the  very  outset 
we  are  betrayed  into  the  tendency  to  misjudge  the 
people  who  live  here.  The  attitude  of  contempt  and 
scorn  is  evoked  by  their  strange  ways,  and  before  we 
know  it  we  join  in  with  those  who  speak  fluently  of 


174  WORK  AMONG  IMMIGRANTS 

the  "offscourings  of  Europe"  being  dumped  upon  us 
by  every  incoming  ocean  liner. 

Give  me  a  moment  at  this  point,  therefore,  to  speak 
a  few  words  of  solemn  warning  against  allowing  our- 
selves to  make  this  mistake.  These  people  are  not  all 
alike.  Their  strangeness  does  not  carry  with  it  the 
sure  conclusion  that  they  bring  no  strength  with  them 
when  they  brave  an  ocean  voyage,  —  hard  enough  yet 
in  the  steerage  of  a  great  steamer,  any  one  knows  who 
has  crossed  with  them, — and  take  up  life  in  a  new  land. 

If  the  meaning  of  the  past,  and  if  the  lesson  of  a 
wider  culture  has  anything  to  say  to  us,  at  such  a  time 
as  this,  there  is  need  for  a  suspended  judgment  and  a 
kindlier  temper.  Some  of  these  men  are  the  represen- 
tatives of  races  that  boasted  a  civilization  when  our 
ancestors  had  passed  scarcely  out  of  barbarism.  They 
may  be  backward  and  belated  now;  but  they  bring  us 
gifts  and  we  can  do  them  good.  It  is  more  important 
to  know  that  we  can  give  them  something  than  it  is 
to  know  that  they  can  give  something  to  us;  but  we 
must  not  lose  sight  of  the  fact  that  these  men  and 
women  are  an  economic  and  a  social  asset  to  us,  as  a 
people,  as  they  throng  the  so-called  "pens"  at  Ellis 
Island.  The  Christian  attitude  toward  them  is  never 
that  of  contempt  or  scorn.  The  truth  is  that  human 
beings  are  all  very  much  alike  in  the  fundamentals  of 
their  common  life  and  being.  Love  and  hope  and 
yearning  are  not  the  possession  of  any  race  or  class  of 
men.  The  immigrant  is  a  brother  man  and  not  an 
alien  to  the  common  life  of  all. 


WORK  AMONG  IMMIGRANTS  175 

The  time  has  come  for  the  church  to  begin  to  do  with 
some  measure  of  statesmanship  and  devotion  the  great 
patriotic  work  to  which  she  is  called,  and  to  recognize 
the  fact  that  she  holds  the  key  to  the  future  through 
her  command  of  the  religious  motive  which  determines 
the  relation  of  man  to  his  total  environment. 

We  are  repeatedly  asked  the  question,  whenever  we 
appeal  for  adequate  care  of  the  immigrants  on  the  part 
of  the  American  churches:  Are  not  these  people  already 
Christians?  Why  should  we  disturb  them  with  the 
preaching  of  a  doctrine  which  has  been  made  offensive 
to  them?  Is  not  this  a  call  to  become  mere  partisan 
proselyters? 

These  questions  are  asked  by  earnest  members  of 
our  Protestant  churches.  They  do  not  spring  out  of 
any  seeking  for  excuses  whereby  stern  service  may  be 
avoided.  They  are  the  natural  expression  of  an  age 
that  has  grown  kindly  and  tolerant  and  seeks  to  give 
to  every  man  the  liberty  which  it  claims  for  every 
man. 

No  Protestant  doubts  for  one  moment  that  there  is 
eternal  truth  beneath  the  creeds  and  the  institutions 
of  the  Greek  and  Roman  Catholic  churches.  In  these 
churches  a  great  number  of  men  and  women  have 
found  genuine  religious  life.  All  this  we  understand 
very  clearly.  On  the  other  hand,  there  is  no  man  who 
knows  all  the  facts  fully,  and  is  true  to  the  conclusions 
to  be  drawn  from  those  facts,  who  does  not  know 
beyond  any  doubt  whatever,  that,  to  the  vast  majority 
of    the    baptized    and    confirmed    members    of    these 


176  WORK  AMONG  IMMIGRANTS 

churches,  the  essential  meaning  of  the  Gospel  of  Christ 
and  of  the  Christian  religion,  as  we  understand  them 
historically,  is  not  known  or  experienced.  This  is  not 
a  harsh  or  censorious  judgment.  When  the  conception 
of  religion  in  which  men  and  women  have  grown  up  is 
essentially  ecclesiastical  and  sacerdotal,  it  is  impossible 
that  the  teaching  or  the  work  of  Jesus  should  assume  a 
central  position  in  the  thought  or  the  life  of  the  mem- 
bers of  such  a  church. 

The  great  mission  of  the  church  and  of  the  individual 
Christian  is  to  preach  and  to  bear  witness  to  the  gospel 
among  those  who  do  not  know  it.  So  began  the  preach- 
ing and  the  witnessing  of  the  apostolic  church  and  so 
must  the  modern  church  continue.  If  men  and  women 
who  bear  the  Christian  name  do  not  know  what  the 
Christian  gospel  essentially  is,  then  to  them  must  it 
be  preached. 

Proselyting,  as  an  attempt  to  disturb  those  who 
find  true  religious  life  in  the  church  of  their  childhood, 
no  Christian  man  will  undertake.  If  through  the  preach- 
ing of  the  gospel  there  comes  such  a  disturbance,  we 
cannot  avoid  it  and  we  must  not  shrink  from  it.  Work 
among  immigrants  for  the  mere  purpose  of  making 
perverts  from  a  venerable  church  order  no  Christian 
man  will  do.  Our  purpose  must  be  to  preach  the  gos- 
pel as  we  understand  it,  which  is  the  good  news  of  a 
new  life  made  possible  to  the  soul  through  faith  in  the 
Redeemer.  To  hear  that  gospel  will  injure  no  man  in 
whatever  church  order  he  may  be.  Any  person  who 
does  not  know  it  ought  to  hear  it,  irrespective  of  the 


WORK  AMONG  IMMIGRANTS  177 

church  which  he  may  claim  as  the  mother  of  his 
soul. 

We  must  revive  the  conception  of  Paul  as  he  gave 
it  in  his  first  letter  to  the  Corinthians:  Christ  sent  me 
to  p-each  the  gospel  and  not  to  give  names  or  create  par- 
ties. If  we  make  the  matter  of  evangelization  first  and 
are  utterly  loyal  to  it,  the  matter  of  proselyting  will 
take  care  of  itself.  The  better  citizen  will  be  made 
when,  through  the  transforming  power  of  the  gospel, 
the  new  man  is  created  to  good  works  in  Christ  Jesus. 
We  can  respect  our  work  and  ourselves  only  as  we 
approach  the  problem  in  this  positive  way. 

Miich  preparatory  work  is  necessary  in  undertaking 
this  service.  —  It  is  a  mistake  to  rush  into  this  work 
before  the  field  has  been  studied  and  the  sentiment  of 
the  church  in  regard  to  it  has  been  cultivated  and 
appreciated.  Therefore  the  first  task  is  that  of  sur- 
veying the  field.  In  beginning  work  for  foreigners, 
the  first  task  of  the  pastor  is  to  learn  fully  the  condi- 
tions of  the  field.  He  must  know  how  many  people  he 
has  to  deal  with,  what  races  they  represent,  and  what 
possible  point  of  contact  there  is  between  him  and  them. 

Interest  and  readiness  for  service  within  the  church 
itself  must  also  he  induced.  —  The  second  work  which 
must  be  done  before  the  ordinary  church  will  defi- 
nitely engage  in  religious  work  for  immigrants  is  to 
evoke  a  genuine  interest  in  them  on  the  part  of  the 
members  of  the  church  itself.  There  is  no  masking  the 
fact  that  there  is  such  indifference  broad  spread  among 
the  people.    A  romantic  interest  is  indeed  to  be  found 


178  WORK  AMONG  IMMIGRANTS 

and  we  may  well  be  glad  that  this  is  so,  but  so  deep  or 
so  well  informed  an  interest  as  warrants  a  pastor  in 
launching  his  work  for  these  people  will  very  rarely 
be  had  without  long  and  patient  preUminary  train- 
ing. 

More  harm  than  good  may  be  done  by  endeavouring 
to  do  this  work  before  the  church  itself  is  ready  to  fol- 
low the  pastor  in  it.  If  we  launch  so  serious  a  piece  of 
work  as  a  mission  to  immigrants,  either  outside  the 
church  or  within  it,  we  must  remember  that  it  is  bound 
to  be  a  long,  difficult  service  and  that  it  will  call  for 
all  the  reserves  of  our  patience  and  practical  support. 
When  we  recognize  this  great  fact,  we  shall  see  that 
unless  we  can  count  on  the  majority  of  the  soUd  mem- 
bers of  the  church  behind  us,  we  shall  hardly  be  war- 
ranted in  beginning  this  service. 

Therefore,  a  campaign  of  education  must  awaken  in- 
terest in  the  religious  care  of  the  immigrant.  —  It  must 
begin  with  the  pastor  himself.  It  is  obvious  that  his 
interest  and  earnestness  is  the  first  point  in  order  of 
importance.  There  are  cases  in  which  it  is  not  the 
pastor,  —  the  more  is  the  pity!  —  but  a  layman,  who 
has  borne  in  upon  him  the  sense  of  responsibility  for 
this  work. 

There  is  only  one  way  in  which  to  gain  an  interest 
in  the  problem  and  the  opportunity.  It  comes  back 
at  last  to  the  meaning  of  the  gospel  and  the  grip  that 
it  has  won  upon  us  personally.  If  the  commandment 
of  Jesus  is  valid  and  if  the  gospel  is  necessary  to  the 
life  of  every  man,  then  there  can  be  no  question  about 


WORK  AMONG  IMMIGRANTS  179 

the  concern  that  the  minister  will  feel  for  the  foreign- 
born  people  of  his  parish.  The  only  way  in  which  the 
minister  is  to  gain  the  desire  to  do  this  work,  in  case  it 
does  not  appeal  to  him  naturally,  is  to  make  serious 
search  of  his  own  heart  as  to  how  fully  he  does  really 
beheve  the  gospel  and  how  much  he  is  willing  to  do  for 
its  extension  to  every  person  who  has  not  received  it 
in  its  purity  and  power. 

The  pulpit  must  have  a  large  place  in  this  campaign  of 
education.  —  One  of  the  ways  in  which  to  begin  to 
awaken  interest  in  the  work  is  to  plan  certain  sermons 
that  will  direct  the  thinking  of  the  people  toward  the 
truth  underlying  the  appeal  for  support  which  the 
pastor  intends  to  make.  Begin  with  one  or  two  Home 
Missionary  sermons. 

Material  is  now  easy  to  be  had  through  the  publica- 
tions of  the  different  missionary  societies. 

Points  of  contact  must  next  he  made.  —  Having  sur- 
veyed the  field  and  found  out  the  thing  to  be  done, 
and  having  worked  up  enough  interest  in  the  church 
to  warrant  procedure,  the  minister  will  now  look  for 
the  points  of  contact  through  which  he  may  begin  his 
missionary  endeavour. 

In  some  cases  it  may  be  that  he  can  begin  with  one 
or  more  children  who  may  have  come  into  the  Sunday 
school,  through  whom  he  can  gain  acquaintance  with 
parents  and  estabhsh  the  personal  connection.  Always 
keep  in  mind  the  value  of  the  children  of  foreigners  as 
the  agents  through  whom  to  work  for  adults. 

The  school  for  learning  English  may  he  the  first  insti- 


180  WORK  AMONG  IMMIGRANTS 

tution.  —  In  general  it  will  be  the  school  which  will 
make  its  immediate  appeal  to  the  younger  and  most 
promising  among  the  immigrants.  There  are  none  of 
them  really  ambitious  who  do  not  recognize  the  fact 
that  only  by  learning  EngUsh  can  they  hope  for  ad- 
vancement in  their  commercial  hfe.  Promotion  in  the 
factory  and  everywhere  depends  upon  their  mastery  of 
the  English  language.  So  they  are  ready  to  respond  to 
the  invitation  to  attend  a  school  to  learn  English.  In 
many  cases  the  first  problem  in  developing  the  mission 
will  be  the  equipment  and  support  of  a  school  to  teach 
English.  Therefore  I  now  take  up  a  line  of  practical 
suggestions  for  the  organization  of  a  school. 

The  grading  of  the  school  is  important.  —  If  a  layman 
is  ready  to  undertake  the  supervision  the  pastor  will  be 
relieved  of  it,  although  he  can  keep  his  hand  on  the 
general  work  of  the  school. 

Call  the  school  together  and  make  grades  according  to 
simple  language  tests.  The  classes  can  be  changed  if 
necessary,  but  I  have  found  that  there  is  considerable 
group-consciousness  in  the  classes,  and  that  it  is  well 
to  keep  them  together  as  much  as  possible.  The  prob- 
lem of  sensitive  feelings  looms  large  in  the  conduct  of 
the  church  school.  Indeed  this  is  in  many  ways  the 
heart  of  the  difficulty.  It  is  not  easy  to  know  how  to 
get  on  with  the  feelings  of  these  people,  and  it  is  diffi- 
cult to  understand  one  another. 

The  problem  of  teachers  comes  next.  —  In  a  school  such 
as  must  be  organized  in  a  church  or  mission  hall,  per- 
sonal relationship  between  teacher  and  pupil  is  most 


WORK  AMONG  IMMIGRANTS  181 

important.  The  instruction  to  be  given  will  be  of  the 
most  elementary  character,  and  therefore  special  train- 
ing in  methods  is  not  necessary.  Young  people  from 
the  Christian  Endeavour  societies  are  adapted  to  this 
work,  even  if  they  are  not  quaUfied  to  teach  in  the  pub- 
lic schools.  Classes  should  be  small.  The  difficulty  of 
discipline  is  almost  entirely  removed,  for  those  who 
come  to  the  school  are  there  because  of  earnest  desire 
to  learn,  and  they  do  not  vex  the  teacher  by  disorderly 
conduct  as  a  rule.  In  our  young  people's  societies 
there  is  an  abundance  of  material  for  the  work  of  teach- 
ing, and  the  minister  will  have  no  great  difficulty  in 
securing  an  adequate  teaching  force.  By  calHng  for 
volunteers,  and  presenting  the  opportunity  for  service 
which  the  school  opens,  the  pastor  will  probably  be 
gratified  at  the  response  of  his  young  people.  He 
must  use  judgment  in  assigning  the  different  teachers 
to  their  classes.  His  own  practical  wisdom  will  show 
him  what  to  do  in  this  regard. 

There  is,  perhaps,  a  sense  of  reluctance  sometimes,  to 
trust  girls  of  seventeen  and  eighteen  to  this  work  of 
teaching  groups  of  foreign-speaking  men.  So  far  as  I 
have  known  the  practical  results  of  this  work,  I  never 
have  discovered  a  case  of  disrespectful  treatment  or 
of  the  least  presumption  on  the  part  of  foreign-speaking 
men  toward  their  teachers.  They  have  held  them  in 
the  highest  personal  respect,  and  have  been  gentlemen 
in  every  instance.  I  do  not  think  there  is  any  well 
grounded  reason  for  hesitation  in  entrusting,  under  the 
wise  guidance  of  the  superintendent,  the  work  of  teach- 


182  WORK  AMONG  IMMIGRANTS 

ing  in  the  church  school  to  girls  of  seventeen  and  eigh- 
teen years  of  age  or  over. 

Text-hooks  should  he  carefully  selected.  —  Adequate 
literature  is  not  yet  at  hand.  However,  there  are  cer- 
tain text-books  to  which  I  shall  call  your  attention  and 
which  you  will  find  useful  in  your  work.^ 

Various  other  lines  of  service  may  now  he  undertaken. 
—  As  we  come  to  close  quarters  with  the  great  work  to 
be  done,  we  are  aware  that  there  is  no  single  line  of 
service  through  which  the  opportunity  can  be  success- 
fully met.  The  following  are  all  necessary  and  profit- 
able agencies  through  which  the  work  must  be  done: 

I.  The  mission  under  the  control  of  the  State  Mis- 
sionary Society  or  the  City  Mission.  With  this  the 
individual  pastor  has  only  indirect  connection  and  we 
shall  not  need  to  speak  at  any  length  concerning  it. 

II.  The  mission  under  the  control  of  the  church,  but 
with  its  paid  missionary  staff  and  meeting  in  its  own 
hall  or  in  the  church. 

With  this  the  connection  of  the  pastor  is  much  closer, 
although  the  presence  of  the  paid  workers  relieves  him 
of  much  personal  care  and  anxiety  as  to  the  success  of 
the  work. 

III.  The  individual  church  imdertaking  service  for 


*  The  following  were  shown  and  commented  upon: 
"English-Italian  Language  Book." 

Howard's  "American  History,  Government,  and  Institutions." 
"  First  Book  in  Language  for  Foreigners." 
System  of  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Association  designed  by 
Secretary  Peter  Roberts. 


WORK  AMONG  IMMIGRANTS  183 

the  religious  care  of  the  immigrant  in  its  own  building 
and  by  the  aid  of  its  own  workers. 

It  is  here  that  the  responsibility  of  the  pastor  becomes 
greatest. 

Work  hy  the  individual  church  is  the  key  to  the  prob- 
lem. —  While  all  these  lines  of  work  are  necessary,  it 
seems  to  me  that  the  key  to  the  whole  situation  is  the 
individual  church  undertaking  work  in  its  own  build- 
ing and  by  the  means  of  its  own  workers.  I  venture  to 
ask  you  to  consider  the  following  reasons  for  this  judg- 
ment: 1.  We  have  buildings  ready  for  use.  2.  We  have 
workers  adequate  to  the  service.  3.  We  have  methods 
suited  to  the  work.  4.  All  this  can  be  done  without 
impairing  the  work  that  the  churches  are  now  doing. 

Organizing  the  mission  is  next  in  order.  —  All  educa- 
tional and  social  activities  are  simply  preparatory  to 
the  equipment  of  the  distinct  mission  for  foreign-speak- 
ing people  where  the  gospel  shall  be  preached  and 
there  shall  be  a  definite  aim  at  conversion  and  training 
in  the  Christian  life.  The  final  purpose  of  all  our  activ- 
ities is  this:  to  bring  these  people  into  personal  rela- 
tionship with  Christ  the  Saviour  of  the  world. 

The  scope  and  function  of  the  mission  need  to  be  care- 
fully considered.  —  As  soon  as  there  is  awakened  a  gen- 
uine and  permanent  interest  in  the  work  which  will 
seem  to  warrant  support,  it  will  be  necessary  to  define 
the  function  of  the  mission.  This  must  be  a  different 
matter  from  the  preaching  station  or  the  Sunday  school 
in  the  outskirts  or  the  slums  of  village  or  city.  We 
know  just  how  to  go  about  the  establishment  of  such 


184  WORK  AMONG  IMMIGRANTS 

an  endeavour.  There  is  enough  experience  behind  us 
in  this  sort  of  work  to  point  the  way  even  to  a  novice. 
So,  too,  if  it  were  to  be  the  work  of  a  rescue  mission 
we  would  know  how  to  proceed.  For  years  our 
churches  have  been  engaged  in  such  enterprises  and 
they  know  what  to  do. 

We  can  appeal  to  no  such  body  of  practical  experi- 
ence for  a  mission  to  immigrants.  The  whole  work  is 
still  in  the  stage  of  experiment.  Shall  we  seek  first  of 
all  to  preach  and  teach  the  gospel  as  we  understand  it? 
Or  shall  we  begin  with  instruction  of  a  more  secular 
character,  trusting  thereby  to  win  the  confidence  of 
the  people  and  endeavouring  later  to  bring  them  face 
to  face  with  the  claim  of  the  gospel?  How  large  an 
element  of  training  in  the  ideals  of  American  citizen- 
ship shall  we  introduce  into  our  work?  All  these  are 
questions  that  we  must  seek  to  answer  before  we  are 
ready  to  proceed  with  the  work. 

Let  us  not,  however,  think  that  we  must  have  clear 
light  on  them  all  before  we  begin.  This  kind  of  work 
is  so  much  a  matter  of  experiment  that  the  best  way 
to  work  out  the  problem  in  any  field  is  to  gain  a  fair 
measure  of  certainty  on  the  points  that  I  have  men- 
tioned and  then  proceed,  knowing  that  the  definition 
of  methods  will  come  as  the  work  progresses.  It  is 
better  to  do  something  even  if  it  is  not  done  in  the  best 
way,  than  to  let  the  opportunity  slip  past  and  do 
nothing  at  all. 

So  the  way  to  begin  is  to  begin.  Do  something  and 
let  the  successes  and  the  failures  of  the  work  point  out 


WORK  AMONG  IMMIGRANTS  185 

the  best  methods  and  teach  the  lessons  that  can  be 
learned  only  in  the  school  of  experience. 

1.  A  mission  on  the  conventional  lines  of  a  preach- 
ing place  and  a  Sunday  school  will  not  meet  the  de- 
mands of  this  peculiar  work.  To  hire  a  hall  or  to  give 
up  a  room  in  the  church  to  the  mission  and  then  to  use 
only  the  general  methods  which  we  have  found  suc- 
cessful in  work  for  English-speaking  people  will  not 
at  all  answer. 

It  is  very  likely  that  there  will  be  necessary  the  intro- 
duction of  some  sort  of  club  features  with  sick  benefit 
elements.  This  must  be  worked  with  exceeding  care 
in  order  that  there  may  be  no  stigma  of  financial  mo- 
tives or  of  graft  connected  with  the  work  of  the  mis- 
sion. 

There  might  be  some  sort  of  a  clearing-house  for  the 
securing  of  work  for  the  members  of  the  mission;  yet 
here  also  the  greatest  care  must  be  exercised  in  order 
that  there  may  not  be  a  seeking  of  the  mission  too 
much  on  the  ground  of  the  loaves  and  the  fishes. 

2.  I  feel  very  strongly  that  there  must  be  at  the  heart 
of  the  mission,  as  its  one  creative  and  organizing  prin- 
ciple, the  steadfast  desire  to  preach  the  gospel  and  to 
train  the  members  in  the  practical  life  that  the  gospel 
inspires. 

I  have  but  very  scant  sympathy  with  the  general 
and  all-round  "settlement"  idea  as  calling  for  the  time 
or  the  service  of  the  church.  I  have  no  criticism  of 
the  settlements  and  esteem  them  very  highly  in  love 
for  their  work's  sake;  but  the  settlement  method  is 


186  WORK  AMONG  IMMIGRANTS 

not  the  one  that  I  bring  to  you  as  the  necessary  method 
in  dealing  with  this  problem.  Our  desire  is  to  preach 
the  gospel.  I  would  use  all  the  institutional  features 
that  have  commended  themselves  to  the  best  workers 
everywhere,  so  long  as  there  is  kept  perfectly  clear  and 
definite  the  one  purpose  to  preach  the  gospel  and  to 
bring  men  to  a  knowledge  of  Jesus  Christ.  I  cannot 
make  this  point  too  strong  as  the  one  central  element 
in  the  mission  for  the  religious  care  of  the  immigrant. 
The  advocate  of  the  institutional  work  and  of  the  settle- 
ment may  say  that  the  religious  factor  is  the  one  that 
he  does  not  wish  to  bring  to  the  fore  and  he  has  perfect 
right  to  this  opinion;  but  with  the  church  the  religious 
purpose  is  perfectly  defined  and  there  is  not  the  shadow 
of  a  doubt  concerning  the  fact  that  it  is  legitimate  and 
that  it  is  vitally  necessary  to  the  work  that  the  church 
has  to  do. 

So  I  would  not  for  one  moment  undervalue  or  obscure 
the  function  of  the  mission.  It  is  designed  for  the 
conversion  of  men  and  women  to  Christ,  and  this  is 
the  only  purpose  that  will  warrant  the  minister  in 
appealing  for  it  or  the  church  in  supporting  it. 

The  leader  of  the  mission  should  he  carefully  sought.  — 
If  the  first  great  problem  in  beginning  work  for  immi- 
grants is  to  create  and  maintain  interest  in  the  work 
on  the  part  of  the  church  itself,  the  second  problem 
surely  is  concerned  with  the  leader.  To  find  an  ade- 
quately trained  man,  who  shall  be  strong  enough  to 
command  the  respect  of  his  fellow  countrymen,  and 
humble  enough  to  be  directed  somewhat  in  his  endeav- 


WORK  AMONG  IMMIGRANTS  187 

our,  —  to  secure  character  and  common  sense  and 
consecration  and  culture,  —  this  is  the  hardest  item 
in  the  entire  proposition. 

It  is  interesting  to  notice  how  exacting  the  most 
ignorant  man  or  woman  may  be  on  the  point  of  the 
intellectual  capacity  of  their  religious  leaders.  They 
have  been  trained  in  the  belief  that  the  priest  knows 
everything  and  they  demand  that  their  minister  or 
missionary  shall  know  ever3rthing.  They  themselves 
may  know  very  little;  they  may  not  even  know  enough 
to  know  whether  their  leader  knows  much  or  not;  but 
they  know  that  they  want  to  know  that  he  knows 
everything.  They  are  very  hard  to  suit.  It  is  some- 
times easier  to  fill  a  ten-thousand-dollar  pulpit  than  it 
is  to  suit  a  httle  group  of  foreign-speaking  evangelicals. 

Gathering  the  congregation  comes  n£xt.  —  It  is  not  an 
easy  task  to  gather  a  permanent  congregation  of  for- 
eign-speaking people.  In  the  first  place  they  are  fear- 
ful of  the  church.  They  have  been  taught  that  this  is 
a  place  of  spiritual  danger,  and  that  they  must  not 
enter  it.  They  do  not  understand  our  purpose.  They 
are  suspicious  of  us.  This  is  an  underlying  character- 
istic with  which  we  must  always  reckon.  Sometimes 
I  think  that  a  large  part  of  our  work  is  simply  overcom- 
ing suspicion  and  disarming  prejudice.  Congregations 
of  foreign-speaking  men  are  subject  to  variation  and 
shift.  They  are  irresponsible.  They  come  when  they 
happen  to.  They  will  promise  glibly  to  be  present  and 
will  not  appear.  They  will  come  in  a  shoal  and  then 
they  will  drop   off   suddenly.    The   influence   of  the 


188  WORK  AMONG  IMMIGRANTS 

priests  will  be  felt  and  the  congregation  will  dwindle 
and  then  will  come  back.  All  these  things  must  be 
reckoned  with,  and  we  must  not  be  discouraged  at  the 
variation  and  the  irresponsible  character  of  the  people. 
I  believe  it  is  possible  to  use  the  stereopticon  with  great 
effect,  especially  among  the  Itahans. 

Make  the  place  of  meeting  attractive.  —  One  of  the 
most  near-sighted  policies  of  our  American  churches 
in  attempting  this  work  is  displayed  in  the  furnishing 
of  mission  halls  and  church  rooms.  Even  the  peas- 
antry of  southern  and  eastern  Europe  come  from  towns 
and  cities  in  which  are  great  churches  with  marble 
decorations  and  furnishings  of  precious  metals,  and  it 
is  almost  impossible  for  them  to  understand  how  we 
can  have  religion  without  symbolism.  To  them  indeed 
the  symbol  has  become  an  essential  rather  than  an  acces- 
sory religious  object,  and  we  must  lead  them  to  under- 
stand the  purity  of  spiritual  worship.  On  the  other 
hand,  we  cannot  expect  them  to  be  satisfied  with  no 
symbols  by  which  appeal  may  be  made  to  their  relig- 
ious emotion.  A  few  pictures  and  the  cross  are  almost 
invaluable  in  furnishing  the  place  for  the  meeting  of 
the  mission.  We  shall  not  be  yielding  any  essential 
point  to  ceremonial  and  ritual  if  we  give  to  these  people 
a  few  simple  symbols  which  will  minister  to  their  high- 
est life. 

Utilize  the  church  festival  and  national  days.  —  Our 
recent  immigrants  come  from  countries  in  which  almost 
every  village  has  its  patron  saint.  The  saint's  day  is 
observed  as  a  holiday,  with  its  processions  and  its 


WORK  AMONG  IMMIGRANTS  189 

festivals  and  its  curious  combination  of  a  country  fair, 
a  patriotic  festivity,  and  a  religious  ceremonial.  To 
shift  from  these  conditions  to  our  bleak  American  ways 
of  observing  special  seasons  and  days  in  church  life  is 
a  wrench  to  the  immigrant.  It  is  time  for  us  to  reckon 
with  this  condition  and  make  all  we  can  of  Christmas 
and  Easter  and  the  greater  feast  days  of  the  church. 
Also  it  is  possible  to  make  note  of  the  national  anni- 
versaries of  these  people  and  observe,  for  instance, 
with  the  Italians,  the  20th  of  September,  and  make 
the  day  count  for  the  good  of  the  mission,  as  well  as 
for  the  instruction  of  the  people  in  the  ideals  of  Amer- 
ican citizenship. 

Preaching  must  he  done  by  the  minister.  —  He  will  be 
obliged  to  bear  a  large  part  in  the  preaching  which 
must  take  place  in  the  mission;  for  the  primary  con- 
cern of  the  mission  is  to  bring  the  gospel  to  those  who 
do  not  know  it.  The  minister  must  keep  constant 
oversight  of  the  work  of  the  missionary  and  he  must 
bear  a  hand  personally  in  the  work  of  preaching.  Under 
these  circumstances  I  have  thought  best  to  put  together 
a  few  suggestions  regarding  the  matter  of  preaching  to 
immigrants. 

Preaching  to  foreigners  has  its  own  elements.  —  The 
little  group  of  foreign-speaking  men  gathered  in  the  mis- 
sion presents  a  most  interesting  problem  to  the  preacher. 
The  things  that  he  can  take  for  granted  with  his  Sim- 
day  congregation  he  cannot  take  for  granted  with  these 
people.  Their  attitude  toward  him  is  different.  In 
some  respects  they  venerate  him  more  than  does  his 


190  WORK  AMONG  IMMIGRANTS 

ordinary  congregation.  In  other  respects  they  are 
more  suspicious  of  him  and  his  approach  to  them  is 
more  difficult.  After  four  years  of  experience  in  speak- 
ing to  various  classes  of  foreigners  by  means  of  an 
interpreter  and  occasionally  directly  in  English,  I 
venture  to  suggest  the  following  general  principles: 

Preach  the  gospel  themes  in  their  simplicity.  —  Two 
subjects  are  supremely  important : 

(a)  Presenting  the  earthly  life  and  character  of  Jesus 
and  showing  him  as  the  Redeemer  from  sin  and  a 
living  Lord  to  be  followed  in  practical  life.  Not  only 
can  this  be  made  most  fruitful  with  the  stereopticon, 
but  it  gives  vivid,  concrete,  and  simple  matter  for  a 
narrative  style  of  preaching.  It  holds  the  interest  of 
foreigners  whose  conception  of  religion  we  have  already 
noted  as  primarily  concerned  with  the  church,  the 
priest,  and  the  ritual.  It  is  very  important  with  these 
people  that  we  tell  the  story  of  the  earthly  life  of  Jesus 
and  that  we  express  simply  the  great  outlines  of  his 
consciousness. 

(6)  The  theme  of  salvation  by  faith.  —  Remembering 
always  that  salvation  is  regarded  by  the  majority  of 
immigrants  as  a  matter  of  baptismal  regeneration, 
confirmation,  and  the  performance  of  the  duties  and 
ceremonies  prescribed  by  the  church,  we  shall  always 
attempt  to  present  to  them  in  our  preaching  the  fun- 
damental essential  theme  of  the  gospel,  salvation  by 
faith.  This  is  more  difficult  than  it  is  to  preach  on 
the  earthly  life  of  Jesus.  Men  can  understand  how 
they  are  to  sustain  a  personal  relationship  to  the  living 


WORK  AMONG  IMMIGRANTS  191 

priest  and  to  an  objective  institution.  They  can  see 
the  confessional;  they  can  pay  the  penance;  they  can 
hear  the  spoken  word  of  pardon.  To  trust  in  an  un- 
seen Father;  to  offer  the  sacrifice  of  a  contrite  spirit; 
to  hear  the  souFs  whisper  of  assurance  in  the  experi- 
ence of  pardon,  —  these  are  the  great  calls  of  the  Chris- 
tian hfe  for  all  sorts  and  conditions  of  men.  When, 
however,  from  infancy  religion  has  been  represented 
by  the  external  and  the  concrete,  it  is  extremely  diffi- 
cult to  make  real  the  truly  spiritual  content  of  the 
Christian  hfe.  It  takes  line  upon  line  of  expression 
and  encouragement  to  compass  the  result  which  we 
are  seeking. 

Illustrations  must  he  used.  —  Preaching  to  immigrants 
must  necessarily  be  concrete  as  well  as  simple,  and 
illustrations  are  of  superior  value  in  this  particular 
line  of  work.    I  suggest  the  following: 

1.  Make  much  use  of  the  great  leaders  and  of  the 
national  history  of  the  people  to  whom  you  are  speak- 
ing. In  preaching  to  the  Italians,  for  instance,  I  have 
been  able  to  use  illustrations  from  the  lives  and  works 
of  their  great  artists  and  leaders  with  excellent  results 
in  the  way  of  impression.  The  heroism,  love  of  coun- 
try, and  loyalty  to  God  shown  in  the  past  history  of 
these  people  touches  them  deeply  when  they  hear  a 
reference  to  them  from  the  lips  of  an  American  preacher. 

2.  In  the  same  way,  illustrations  from  American 
life  and  history  can  be  used  most  advantageously  in 
preaching  to  immigrants.  They  are  as  a  rule  deeply 
interested  in  the  men  who  have  made  America  great, 


192  WORK  AMONG  IMMIGRANTS 

and  they  respond  to  suggestions  from  the  hves  of  Wash- 
uigton  and  Lincoln. 

3.  I  have  made  it  a  point  to  touch  upon  the  daily 
work  of  the  men  in  the  factories  and  to  show  very 
practically  and  concretely  how  their  religion  must  be 
related  to  their  daily  Hfe. 

Factory  superintendents  complain  not  only  that 
these  men  are  slow  and  incompetent,  but  that  they 
steal  and  are  imtruthful.  Foreigners  have  no  monop- 
oly of  these  vices;  but  there  is  a  very  special  demand 
that  the  members  of  the  foreign  mission  shall  commend 
the  gospel  by  an  upright  hfe.  It  is  on  this  rock  that  so 
many  of  our  ventures  are  wrecked.  Therefore  the 
ethical  must  be  kept  to  the  forefront  and  asserted  again 
and  again.  Effort  must  be  made  to  bring  the  gospel  to 
bear  plainly  and  urgently  upon  the  daily  Hfe  of  the 
people. 

Use  an  interpreter.  —  In  the  majority  of  cases  it  will 
be  necessary  to  preach  to  immigrants  through  this 
mediiun.  It  requires  practice  on  the  part  of  the  speaker 
to  do  this  efficiently;  on  the  other  hand,  a  good  inter- 
preter is  exceedingly  hard  to  find.  Either  the  inter- 
preter is  too  free  or  too  full;  or  he  is  too  concise  and 
imperfectly  presents  the  thought.  Of  course  in  a  case 
where  the  speaker  does  not  know  an)rthing  of  the  lan- 
guage, he  is  absolutely  at  the  mercy  of  the  interpreter. 
If  he  is  fortunate  enough  to  be  able  to  follow  the  drift 
of  the  interpreter's  words,  he  can  tell  what  justice  is 
being  done  him.  It  is  only  with  a  few  of  the  simpler 
languages  that  he  can  enjoy  the  latter  experience.  The 


WORK  AMONG  IMMIGRANTS  193 

Slavic  tongues  are  too  difficult  to  permit  their  mastery 
to  a  slight  degree  even  by  the  minister  in  a  parish. 

The  following  suggestions  may  be  of  service  in  using 
an  interpreter : 

a.  Give  the  interpreter  if  possible  a  complete  thought 
each  time.  That  is,  speak  in  paragraphs.  A  sentence 
at  a  time  is  too  Httle.  Three  sentences  or  four  are  the 
maximum,  each  sentence  containing,  at  the  most,  not 
over  two  clauses,  or  a  simple  proposition  with  perhaps 
two  phrase  modifiers.  It  will  require  considerable 
careful  study  and  mental  quickness  on  one's  feet  to 
meet  these  conditions.  If  you  remember  that  your 
first  duty  is  not  to  impress  an  audience  but  an  inter- 
preter, it  will  be  more  simple.  You  must  suffer  from 
divided  attention  while  you  look  at  the  audience  and 
also  give  the  interpreter  now  and  then  the  benefit  of 
rather  direct  address. 

h.  Let  an  illustration  follow  a  proposition  and  make 
the  illustration  so  simple  that  if  possible  it  can  be 
interpreted  in  one  passage.  This  is  remarkably  valu- 
able training  in  precision  and  conciseness.  I  have 
found  it  valuable  at  times  to  have  an  object  in  my 
pocket  or  within  reach  by  which  to  illustrate  a  thought. 

c.  Hold  your  own  attention.  The  heart  of  the 
problem  is  to  hold  your  own  attention  upon  your 
theme  and  keep  your  interest  in  it  while  it  is  being 
jerked  out  of  you  and  away  from  you  by  this  constant 
interruption.  Now  and  then  you  will  find  yourself 
wondering  what  is  happening  to  your  subject,  and  you 
will  lose  your  grasp  of  it  yourself.    At  first  you  might 


194  WORK  AMONG  IMMIGRANTS 

think  it  would  be  easy;  you  have  only  to  give  an  idea 
and  then  while  that  is  being  explained  you  can  think 
out  another.  On  the  other  hand,  it  is  supremely  im- 
portant that  you  know  what  you  are  to  say  at  the  out- 
set, and  hold  yourself  to  it  until  the  conclusion. 

Be  prepared  for  surprises.  I  have  made  a  most 
serious  proposition  and  found  that  it  was  awakening 
mirth  in  the  audience.  Just  what  had  happened  I 
did  not  know;  how  to  set  it  right  I  could  not  tell; 
whether  to  begin  over  and  try  to  correct  it  I  was  not 
sure.  The  best  way  I  know  is  to  keep  going  and  trust 
that  if  one  paragraph  suffers  shipwreck  your  whole 
battle  fleet  will  not  go  down.  It  is  difficult  business; 
but  in  reality  it  is  most  interesting  and  practice  makes 
perfect  and  brings  assurance  and  courage.  Every 
minister  ought  to  try  it  for  his  own  welfare.  I  remem- 
ber my  first  attempt  to  make  an  address  through  an 
interpreter  in  Bohemia,  and  I  would  have  been  glad  at 
that  time  if  I  might  have  received  even  the  fragmentary 
suggestions  which  I  have  tried  to  give  you. 

You  will  certainly  do  well  to  avail  yourselves  of 
your  courses  in  the  conversational  use  of  foreign  lan- 
guages, as  offered  in  this  school. 

The  foreign-speaking  church  will  ultimately  he  organ- 
ized.  —  When  the  converts  of  the  mission  begin  to 
increase  we  are  brought  to  the  question  as  to  what  we 
shall  do  with  them.  According  to  the  congregational 
system  we  know  only  the  independent  church,  and  it 
is  a  very  serious  question  whether  these  men  are  able 
to  take  up  the  administration  of  their  own  affairs.    Is 


WORK  AMONG  IMMIGRANTS  195 

it  not  better  to  incorporate  those  who  come  into  the 
Christian  life  through  the  mission  into  the  membership 
of  the  church  that  supports  the  mission,  and  keep  them 
there,  rather  than  to  trust  them  with  the  organization 
of  a  church  of  their  own?    The  question  has  many  sides. 

In  the  larger  church  of  EngHsh-speaking  members 
they  will  find  very  scant  fellowship.  They  do  not 
know  the  language  and  they  covet  the  hearing  of  the 
mother  tongue.  The  members  of  the  English-speaking 
church  may  be  never  so  kind;  but  they  cannot  be  the 
fellow-members  to  these  strangers  that  they  would  like 
to  be.  Of  course  the  best  of  them  will  do  something; 
but  on  the  whole  the  stranger  will  miss  the  air  and  the 
manner  of  his  own  people. 

On  the  point  that  they  cannot  be  trusted  with  the 
administration  of  their  own  affairs,  it  is  to  be  said  that 
with  wisdom  and  kindness  on  the  part  of  the  larger 
church  there  is  no  reason  why  they  may  not  be  trusted 
with  their  own  church  affairs.  They  may  make  some 
mistakes,  but  they  will  be  on  the  whole  as  competent 
as  most  congregations.  On  the  whole,  wherever  it  is 
possible,  I  believe  in  the  organization  of  the  foreign- 
speaking  church. 

The  cultivation  of  parish  neighbourliness  must  grow 
out  of  all  this.  —  Thus  far  we  have  been  concerned  with 
the  mission  work  carried  on  in  the  church  or  chapel. 
We  have  taken  up  the  equipment  and  the  methods 
and  the  workers  in  the  schools  and  meetings.  There 
now  arises  a  very  much  larger  question  which  must  be 
faced  by  the  pastor  and  his  workers. 


196  WORK  AMONG  IMMIGRANTS 

What  can  be  done  to  cultivate  a  genuine  sense  of 
neighbourliness,  and  how  can  there  be  a  general  min- 
istry to  these  people  by  the  members  of  the  church? 

The  question  is  exceedingly  important.  We  can 
obtain  results  in  the  meetings  of  the  mission;  but  how 
is  it  possible  to  get  our  people  to  neighbour  up  to  these 
strangers  who  have  in  many  cases  come  to  live  in  the 
same  street  and  block? 

Into  this  problem  enter  the  differences  that  sunder 
us  all;  and  it  is  one  of  the  most  difficult  pieces  of  work 
that  the  pastor  can  have  to  do  to  bring  about  a  gen- 
uine spirit  of  neighbourliness  in  the  parish.  It  is  so 
easy  to  cherish  a  very  genuine  and  laudable  feeling  of 
interest  and  sympathy  with  the  Armenian  sufferers 
from  massacre  or  the  Sicilian  victims  of  earthquake, 
but  to  be  willing  to  visit  the  home  of  such  a  family  in 
the  parish  and  to  try  to  know  and  encourage  its  mem- 
bers is  quite  another  matter. 

In  the  most  tactful  and  kindly  manner  the  pastor 
must  work  to  lay  this  sense  of  responsibility  upon 
the  hearts  of  the  parish.  It  is  not  best  to  appeal  over- 
much to  sympathy  or  to  pity.  These  people  do  not 
need  to  be  pitied.  They  have  their  ambitions  and 
their  loves  and  their  children.  If  one  is  seeking  for 
happiness  he  need  not  confine  his  search  to  the  more 
wealthy  and  cultured  members  of  the  congregation. 
There  is  healthy  joy  and  supreme  moral  worth  among 
these  people  of  the  working,  rising  immigrant  classes. 
Make  the  fact  clear  that  these  people  are  really  very 
much  like  us.    They  are.    At  the  last  analysis,  human- 


WORK  AMONG  IMMIGRANTS  197 

ity  is  the  same  and  the  members  of  the  parish  are 
not  asked  to  be  friends  and  neighbours  to  men  and 
women  who  are  essentially  peculiar  or  objects  of  pity. 
They  are  given  the  privilege  of  being  the  friends  and 
helpers  of  men  and  women  who  are  worthy  of  the  ser- 
vice and  the  friendship  of  the  best  men  and  women 
of  the  churches. 

When  this  point  of  view  is  once  established  we  have 
gone  a  long  way  toward  the  introduction  of  the  genuine 
ministry  of  Christian  neighbourliness  into  the  parish. 
This  spirit  and  practice  of  parish  neighbourliness  will  be 
the  finest  product  of  the  mission  service  and  the  only 
permanent  warrant  for  it.  Here  lies  the  secret  of 
the  religious  care  of  the  immigrant  by  the  American 
churches. 

I  rejoice  that  this  school  of  theology  is  preparing  its 
men  for  this  splendid  service. 


THE  MINISTER  AND  THE  RURAL 
COMMUNITY 

BY 

Rev,  Wilbert  L.  Anderson,  D.D. 

Dr.  Anderson,  of  the  Class  of  1882  in  Yale  Divinity 
School,  is  pastor  of  the  First  Congregational  Church  in 
Amherst,  Massachusetts,  and  the  author  of  ^^  The  Country 
TownJ' 


THE  MINISTER  AND  THE  RUBAL  COMMUNITY 

IT  is  no  part  of  my  purpose  to  pass  over  to  you  any 
ready-made  solutions  of  rural  problems.  If  I 
accept  any  theory  concerning  ruraI_.progre§s^  it  is  that 
there  must  be  reliance  upon  the  locaL,Mlitiative.  The 
people  on  the  spot  must  work  out  their  own  salvation. 
By  local  initiative  is  not  meant  leaving  things  alone 
imtil  somebody  within  the  community  acts,  but  rather 
the  local  uprising  to  handle  the  situation,  whatever 
may  be  the  source  of  the  impulse.  The  State,  to  take 
an  example,  may  help  the  rural  schools  by  legislation 
in  advance  of  local  opinion;  yet  there  can  be  no  secure 
progress  until  the  people  of  each  locality  support  and 
administer  their  schools  with  genuine  enthusiasm. 
There  can  be  no  real  progress  which  is  not  an  expres- 
sion of  local  vitality  and  interest. 

If  now  it  is  agreed  that  rural  communities  must  work 
out  their  own  salvation,  let  me  point  out  to  you  a  most 
important  providential  means  of  progress.  To  the 
local  initiative  as  it  is  otherwise  constituted  is  added  a 
minister  —  a  man  who  comes  into  the  community  to 
be  a  part  of  it,  a  man  of  ability,  a  man  of  experience 
elsewhere,  a  man  trained  for  leadership.  This  rein- 
forcement of  the  rural  community  is,  perhaps,  the  most 
significant  element  in  rural  progress.  Through  the 
church  the  people  have  power  to  bring  in  a  leader,  — 

201 


202  THE  RURAL  COMMUNITY 

if  they  please,  an  expert  in  community  building;  and 
when  he  arrives,  he  has  at  hand  a  central  institution 
around  which  and  through  which  to  reorganize  and 
reconstruct  the  community. 

In  the  country  the  minister  is  related  visibly  to  the 
whole  community.  For  simplicity  we  will  assume  the 
ideal  of  a  single  church.  If  it  should  be  your  fortime 
to  serve  in  such  a  field,  you  would  have  the  great  ad- 
vantage of  responsibility  for  all  sorts  of  people,  whereas 
the  urban  pastor  must  ordinarily  minister  to  a  section 
or  to  a  class.  In  your  field  will  be  men  of  three  types. 
There  will  be  the  religious  man,  and  the  worldly  man, 
and  the  worthless  man;  and  each  of  these  will  be  of 
many  varieties.  These  men  are  in  your  field,  even  if 
they  do  not  attend  church.  In  the  city  the  worthless 
men  are  off  somewhere  in  the  slum,  and  the  worldly 
men  are  great  figures  at  banquets  and  the  like.  It  is 
not  impossible  that  worldly  and  worthless  men  may 
attend  your  church,  but  for  the  most  part  they  might 
as  well  be  in  the  moon  as  in  your  city,  for  any  chance 
that  you  have  at  them.  In  the  country  these  people 
are  yoiu*  neighbours;  it  is  your  duty  to  call  upon  them 
and  their  families.  The  rural  environment  is  yours  to 
shape,  and  you  are  to  scheme  with  it  until  you  throw 
it  around  a  man  as  you  would  immesh  a  fish  in  a  net. 

But  what  do  I  mean  by  a  worldly  man?  I  mean  a 
very  notable  character  in  the  country.  He  may  be  a 
farmer;  often  he  is  a  merchant;  sometimes  he  is  a  cattle- 
dealer.  You  will  find  these  men  in  the  country  amass- 
ing fortunes  that  run  up  to  a  hundred  thousand  dollars. 


THE  RURAL  COMMUNITY  203 

This  rural  rich  man  is  a  bit  raw  and  crude.  He  has  the 
knack  of  making  money  and  saving  it.  He  is  fond  of 
mortgages,  through  which  he  sometimes  assists  and 
sometimes  oppresses  his  neighbours.  He  lives  in  ma- 
terial comfort,  but  without  elegance.  He  is  of  strict 
integrity,  for  he  has  capitahzed  honesty  and  makes  it 
pay  good  interest.  He  is  self-made  and,  within  his 
limitations,  well  made.  He  is  on  the  wrong  side  of 
educational  policy;  he  cannot  be  coimted  for  public 
spirit;  taxes  are  not  pleasant  to  him.  If  he  attends 
church,  he  may  contribute  ten  dollars  a  year.  Not 
attending  church,  I  have  known  him  to  pay  two  dollars 
for  preaching  on  some  ground  of  promoting  good  order 
and  morals.  He  works  hard  and  inevitably  thinks  the 
minister  an  idler  who  rests  quietly  in  the  morning,  and 
saunters  easily  through  the  afternoon.  You  have  only 
to  think  of  agonizing  prayer  for  the  salvation  of  souls 
or  of  giving  good  money  for  missions  to  realize  the 
infinite  remoteness  of  this  worldly  man  from  the  church. 
It  is  worth  our  while  to  imderstand  this  man  because 
he  has  great  influence.  He  is  the  outstanding  example 
of  success  for  boys  to  imitate.  His  word  is  quoted  by 
scores  of  firesides.  His  personality  is  of  that  obtrusive 
kind  that  counts  when  public  opinion  comes  to  a  deci- 
sion. In  brief,  this  man  is  the  natural  leader  of  a  great 
part  of  the  community,  if  not  of  the  whole  town;  he  is 
the  most  important  sociological  fact  in  rural  life.  You 
will  find  him  undoubtedly,  and  it  will  be  your  study  to 
know  what  to  do  with  him,  or  how  to  do  anything  with 
him  in  the  centre  of  your  field.     I  shall  not  try  to  tell 


204  THE  RURAL  COMMUNITY 

you  what  to  do  with  him  —  that  is  for  you  to  find  out. 
But  whatever  you  do,  get  acquainted  with  him.  It 
is  bad  for  ministers  to  be  too  much  in  the  society 
of  the  saints,  for  that  emphasizes  their  emphasis, 
and  a  minister  who  is  nothing  but  an  exclamation 
point  for  reUgion  is  useless  in  the  new  rural  move- 
ment. 

When  you  turn  to  the  worthless  man,  you  cannot 
help  wishing  that  he  might  be  more  like  his  prosperous 
neighbour.  The  rural  degenerate  is  a  great  figure  in  his 
own  way.  He  has  been  investigated  and  exploited 
imtil  he  would  be  spoiled,  were  that  possible  for  so 
unsavoury  a  person,  if  he  knew  his  own  prominence. 
No  two  of  these  fellows  are  ahke,  but  all  together  they 
give  the  country  whatever  bad  reputation  it  has.  The 
rural  bum  is  particularly  atrocious  because  he  has  a 
certain  freedom  to  be  himself.  He  is  not  kept  down 
by  the  police;  he  is  not  under  factory  discipline;  he  does 
not  knock  against  his  fellows  in  a  way  to  learn  a  Httle 
sense.  He  may  be  merely  thriftless  and  lawless,  or  he 
may  be  positively  vicious.  Without  his  vices  he  is 
interesting  as  an  example  of  inabihty  to  catch  the  pace 
of  civilization.  He  shares  with  the  poet  an  aloofness 
from  modernity.  In  another  age  he  might  have  been 
a  successful  hunter  and  trapper,  or  perhaps  a  notable 
adventurer  and  pioneer.  On  other  sides  of  his  nature 
he  has  kinship  with  philosophers  who  feel  that  the 
human  intellect  is  too  fine  to  waste  itself  in  a  life  of 
manual  labour.  Often  he  is  of  the  type  of  Socrates, 
fond  of  talk  and  of  loafing  about  with  young  men. 


THE  RURAL  COMMUNITY  205 

Where  the  worldly  man  sets  the  pace,  it  goes  hard 
with  this  idler. 

What  will  you  do  with  this  worthless  man?  I  do 
not  know,  but  I  am  confident  that  you  do  little  good 
by  counting  him  and  tabulating  him  and  putting  him 
into  studies  of  rural  degeneracy.  You  are  familiar,  no 
doubt,  with  those  writers  who  have  discovered  our 
thriftless  and  vicious  friend.  There  is  no  question  that 
they  have  actually  seen  him.  If  they  are  untruthful, 
it  is  an  untruthfulness  of  emphasis  or  inference.  Some- 
times in  simamer  there  comes  a  peculiar  wind  that  turns 
up  the  leaves  of  the  trees,  and  we  say  that  it  is  a  sign 
of  rain.  Those  queer-looking  undersides  were  there 
before  the  wind  blew,  only  we  did  not  see  them;  what- 
ever may  be  the  value  of  the  portent  of  rain,  no  one 
really  supposes  that  the  odd  appearance  of  the  trees 
really  causes  rain.  Do  not  go  through  a  community 
exposing  its  evils.  As  everywhere  in  a  sinful  world, 
draw  your  inferences  from  the  vigour  of  right  and  not 
from  the  diffusion  of  wrong. 

These  worldly  and  these  worthless  men  are  part  of 
the  field  of  the  country  church.  Some  of  them  may  be 
reached  directly  by  the  converting  power  of  the  Gospel. 
The  social  problem  is  to  build  the  community  with  these 
men  as  material  in  part;  or  from  another  point  of  view, 
it  is  to  construct  a  community  whose  influence  will 
environ  all  the  people,  good  and  bad,  repressing  the 
evil  and  inducing  the  highest  possible  development  of 
individual  character.  Of  course  the  religious  people 
figure  yet  more  largely  in  the  rural  field,  and  they  are 


206  THE  RURAL  COMMUNITY 

the  reliance  of  the  minister  in  whatever  he  attempts 
for  the  community.  These  normal  men  and  women 
require  no  special  description,  but  it  would  be  fatal  to 
forget  or  to  ignore  them.  Were  all  the  people  religious 
and  virtuous,  the  task  of  building  the  community  would 
be  much  simplified,  for  there  would  be  nothing  to  do 
but  to  follow  the  ideal  lines.  In  fact,  the  minister  must 
take  the  people  as  he  finds  them,  and  their  defects  will 
modify  every  plan.  He  may  expect  to  find  enough 
intelligence  and  character  for  leadership,  and  enough 
also  of  intractable  material  to  make  the  struggle  for 
improvement  perennially  interesting. 

If  now  we  undertake  to  analyze  the  commimity 
structurally  to  find  what  service  the  church  may  render, 
we  are  impressed,  first  of  all,  by  the  economic  aspect. 
In  recent  discussion  of  rural  problems  great  emphasis 
is  given  to  the  material  support  of  the  community.  It 
is  not  denied  that  there  may  be  superb  flowering  of 
individual  character  in  poor  surroundings,  but  it  is 
held  as  axiomatic  that  there  can  be  no  fine  and  whole- 
some growth  of  social  life  and  social  institutions  on 
impoverished  or  barren  soils  or  in  thriftless  and  poor 
populations.  The  more  tangible  argument  is  that  there 
must  be  ability  to  support  schools  and  churches  and 
whatever  institutions  are  conducive  to  progress.  There 
is,  moreover,  a  subtle  connection  of  moral  forces  so 
potent  that  the  diligent  attention  to  material  things  is 
a  condition  of  vigorous  social  and  spiritual  life.  On 
the  other  hand,  material  prosperity  does  not  ensure 
fine  social  and  spiritual  development.    There  may  be 


THE  RURAL  COMMUNITY  207 

sordid  selfishness  on  fat  lands,  as  everybody  knows; 
there  may  be  a  good  foundation  with  no  worthy  super- 
structure. 

What  may  the  church  contribute  to  the  wealth  of  thej 
community?  Of  two  modes  of  doing  even  conmion* 
things  the  church  stands  for  the  better.  Devoted  to  the 
true  and  the  beautiful  and  the  good,  her  idealism  com- 
pels her  to  seek  what  is  superior.  The  true  way,  the 
good  way,  the  beautiful  way  to  keep  a  house  or  till  a 
field,  in  a  world  of  reason,  is  the  way  of  prosperity  and 
wealth.  The  church  advocates  the  best  and  highest 
ways  in  common  things  by  a  kind  of  instinct;  even  if 
such  considerations  are  not  the  staple  of  preaching, 
they  are  ever  in  the  background. 

In  our  time  there  have  been  discovered  new  modes 
for  the  farm  and  the  farm  home.  It  is  not  the  province 
of  the  church  to  teach  directly  the  new  agriculture,  but 
rather  to  awaken  the  mind  of  the  farmer,  and  arouse  in 
him  the  spirit  of  idealism  so  that  he  will  seek  the  new 
agricultural  knowledge.  The  church  will,  not  say  to 
the  farmer.  Cultivate  your  farm  in  this  new  way  that  it 
may  pay  you  a  larger  profit,  but  rather  this:  Cultivate 
your  farm  in  this  better  way  to  make  the  most  of  yom 
opportunity,  to  find  the  highest  zest  in  your  occupation, 
and  to  glorify  your  calling.  As  country  ministers  you 
will  know  less  of  farming  in  detail  than  your  parishioners, 
but  you  should  know  more  than  they  of  the  spirit  of 
progress.  Yiia  should  do  much  to  soften  the  suspicion 
of  modern  knowledge  in  the  rural  mind;  you  should 
"sland  boldly  for  appUed  science.    You  should  foster 


208  THE  RURAL  COMMUNITY 

the  humility  that  will  receive  education,  and  the 
nobility  of  mind  that  loves  the  way  that  education 
points  out. 

Material  prosperity  depends  upon  production,  upon 
marketing  the  product,  and  upon  expending  the  pro- 
ceeds of  the  sale  of  products.  For  production  the 
church  teaches  industry,  perseverance,  and  ambition. 
For  marketing  the  church  teaches  honesty  and  mutual 
helpfulness.  For  expenditure  the  church  teaches  fru- 
gahty,  sobriety,  and  the  higher  tastes.  Just  now  the 
crying  need  of  rural  communities  is  a  better  mode  of 
marketing  products  —  perhaps  some  form  of  cooper- 
ative marketing.  The  church  should  be  able  to  con- 
tribute that  wilhngness  to  work  together  for  a  common 
end  that  such  a  movement  requires. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  draw  out  in  detail  the  incom- 
parable service  of  the  church  to  the  material  prosperity 
of  the  rural  community.  This  has  been  a  standard 
appeal  of  home  missionary  addresses  for  many  decades. 
A  well-conducted  church  should  add  thousands  of  dol- 
lars to  the  incomes  of  the  people  and  thousands  more 
to  the  value  of  real  estate.  We  are  not  trying  to  prove 
so  evident  a  fact.  Inevitably  some  financial  benefit 
accrues;  it  is  your  business  to  see  to  it  that  this  result 
is  the  largest  possible  in  the  new  modern  conditions. 
This,  of  course,  is  altogether  different  from  the  pro- 
gramme that  arrays  religion  against  money  and  per- 
petually rebukes  the  diligent  acquisition  of  wealth. 
We  must  remember  that  wealth  is  the  basis  of  civil- 
ization. 


THE  RURAL  COMMUNITY  209 

Having  secured  as  much  prosperity  as  is  needful, 
what  is  the  next  step  in  developing  the  rural  community? 
Is  it  not  the^awaj^ning  of  .a  proper  spirit?  This  spirit 
is,  first  and  foremost,  an  aspiring  spirit.  The  danger 
of  wealth  is  that  it  may  engender  a  sordid  spirit.  Not 
money  but  the  love  of  money  is  the  root  of  all  evil. 
We  want  wealth  for  the  good  there  is  in  it;  we  want  it 
as  a  base  for  higher  things.  We  would  not  lift  a  finger 
to  increase  wealth  if  this  meant  hoardings  merely, 
or  avarice  merely.  We  desire  wealth  for  what  it  can 
support,  for  what  it  can  purchase.  All  depends  upon 
the  spirit,  and  the  right  spirit  is  the  Christian  spirit  — 
the  spirit  of  idealism,  the  spirit  of  benevolence,  the 
spirit  of  a  noble  utilitarianism.  The  church  has  this 
critical  office  of  making  riches  safe  and  serviceable.  In 
this  there  is  no  substitute  for  the  church.  When  the 
church  fails  at  this, point,  the  worldly  class  increases 
and  gains  leadership.  There  must  be  in  the  church  th^ 
power  to  win  these  worldly  people  to  a  higher  mind.) 
This  is  a  strategic  point  for  rural  progress,  and  you  will 
succeed  there  not  so  much  by  direct  assault  as  by  the 
continual  influence  of  a  compact  body  of  people  acting 
by  word  and  example  in  the  higher  way.  Make  it  then 
conspicuous  in  your  ministry  that  you  interpret  the 
Gospel  as  a  spirit  of  aspiration. 

To  build  the  rural  community  it  is  important  that 
this  idealism  should  be  distinctly  rural;  the  aspiring  f 
spirit  should  be  a  rural  spirit.    If  you  are  not  careful' 
here,  you  will  awaken  ambition  only  to  hasten  the 
flight  to  the  city.    It  is  but  fair  to  keep  the  way  open 


210  THE  RURAL  COMMUNITY 

for  the  country  boys  and  girls  to  seek  their  fortune  in 
the  larger  opportunities  that  the  city  affords;  and  we 
need  not  deny  the  right  of  the  best  families  to  forsake 
the  old  home  in  order  to  gain  urban  advantages.  In 
the  past  this  migration  has  been  promoted  both  by 
industrial  pressure  and  by  personal  discontent.  The 
readjustment  of  population  to  the  new  industrial  order 
is  now  nearly  completed.  It  remains  to  foster  the 
love  of  the  coimtry  so  that,  having  a  fair  industrial 
opportunity  where  they  are  born,  the  country  people 
shall  be  content  to  pass  their  lives  there.  It  is  charged 
that  the  school  has  fostered  the  urban  rather  than  the 
rural  spirit.  Courses  of  study,  text-books,  teachers, 
have  conspired  to  turn  the  interest  and  hope  of  the 
brighter  pupils  toward  the  city.  No  doubt,  the  same  is 
true  of  the  churches.  Young  ministers  who  are  antici- 
pating urban  pulpits  should  take  special  care  not  to 
augment  rural  discontent.  It  is  now  urged  as  a  most 
important  part  of  the  campaign  for  rural  progress  that 
the  school  should  definitely  foster  a  rural  spirit  and 
that  the  church  should  be  a  centre  for  the  dissemination 
of  interest  in  rural  life. 

It  is  believed  by  many  that  the  time  has  come  for  a 
new  education  and  a  new  ministry.  Certainly,  if  there 
is  to  be  a  community  rising  directly  upon  the  land, 
there  must  be  a  wide  and  deep  satisfaction  in  life  upon 
the  farm  and  an  overmastering  belief  in  the  possibil- 
ities of  such  a  life.  The  church,  more  than  any  other 
institution,  owes  it  to  the  people  to  teach  the  apprecia- 
tion and  enjoyment  of  advantages  near  at  hand.    At 


THE  RURAL  COMMUNITY  211 

the  least,  she  should  inculcate  thankfulness,  content- 
ment, the  love  of  natural  beauty,  and  joy  m  the  actual 
environment.  It  is  the  duty  of  the  church  to  teach  the 
ideahsm  suited  to  its  location,  and  the  country  church 
is  bound  to  hold  up  to  the  people  the  highest  rural 
ideahsm.  The  possibiHties  of  rural  communities  are 
now  very  great.  If  the  church  is  to  teach  the  people 
how  to  hve,  she  must  urge  whatever  belongs  to  the 
highest  Ufe  in  her  special  environment.  The  minister 
who  presents  ethics  as  if  moral  principles  would  some- 
time be  appHcable  in  cities  when  his  hearers  arrive  in 
them,  or  religion  as  it  is  organized  in  urban  churches 
which  they  may  sometime  know,  certainly  fails  in  ped- 
agogy. And  if  he  teaches  ethics  and  reUgion  as  if  they 
were  for  some  New  Jerusalem  midway  between  heaven 
and  earth,  he  cannot  claim  to  be  practical.  What 
excuse  can  he  have  for  not  clothing  his  principles  with 
the  facts  and  conditions  of  rural  Ufe  ?  ' '  You  do  not  know 
what  a  skeleton  is,"  said  one  small  boy  to  another. 
"Yes,  I  do,"  was  the  retort,  "it  is  just  bones  with  the 
people  off."  You  can  preach  ethics  and  rehgion  with 
the  people  off,  but  I  beg  you  not  to  do  that.  Now  if 
you  are  to  put  the  people  on,  let  it  be  true  coimtry 
people  in  all  the  ideahsm  of  country  hfe,  if  you  are  a 
country  minister,  just  as  it  should  be  city  people  in  all 
the  idealism  of  city  hfe,  if  you  are  an  urban  pastor. 

To-day  this  rural  spirit  may  be  a  spirit  of  enthusiasm, 
and  this  determines  one  of  your  important  tasks.  The 
pessimism  that  has  wrought  havoc  for  a  generation 
should  be  dispelled.    You  should  understand  the  modern 


212  THE  RURAL  COMMUNITY 

economic  world  and  be  able  to  explain  what  has  hap- 
pened. In  changing  from  a  form  of  civilization  based 
on  hand  tools  to  a  form  of  civilization  based  on  ma- 
chinery, from  the  independent  and  self-sufficient  farm 
home  to  the  industrial  order  in  which  all  the  people  are 
supported  from  all  the  farms  with  a  vast  interplay  of 
trade,  rural  society  has  suffered  as  radical  a  revolution 
as  can  be  conceived.  This  has  been  a  severe  and  pro- 
tracted stress.  Nothing  anywhere  is  as  it  once  was. 
You  may  always  admit  that  great  glory  distinguishes 
the  past,  and  then  you  must  insist  that  great  glory 
will  shine  again,  only  it  will  not  be  the  same  glory. 
We  never  shall  see  again  the  peculiar  excellence  of  the 
best  rural  life  in  the  early  decades  of  the  last  century. 
On  every  farm  a  family  was  matched  against  the  powers 
of  nature,  and  it  built  and  maintained  a  home  abound- 
ing in  simple  comfort.  And  this  fight  was  waged  as 
men  fought  in  the  old  days  with  javelin  and  sword. 
As  we  go  back  to  hand-to-hand  conffict  for  the  great 
epics  of  valour,  so  it  seems  to  me  that  the  epical  grandeur 
of  rural  life  reached  its  height  in  the  times  of  our  great- 
grandfathers. Ours  will  be  another  kind  of  glory. 
(To-day  the  rural  community  is  the  base  of  support  to 
the  city;  both  city  and  country  are  in  one  industrial 
order.  The  humblest  family  on  the  land  is  part  of  the 
magnificent  enterprise  of  the  modern  world.  This  rela- 
tion is  the  assurance  of  rural  prosperity.  To-day  the 
basis  of  support  in  the  country  seems  not  to  be  ample 
for  the  overgrown  cities.  All  farm  produce  commands 
a  high  price  because  there  is  not  enough  of  it.    Other 


THE  RURAL  COMMUNITY  213 

causes  lift  prices,  but  they  could  not  lift  them  to  the 
present  height  if  there  were  over-production  on  the 
farms.  On  the  other  hand,  the  richer  furnishing  of  life 
returns  to  the  country  from  the  labour  of  cities.  In  the 
farmer's  home  everything  needful  or  beautiful  or  helpful 
may  be  provided.  In  food,  in  clothing,  in  furniture, 
in  conveniences  and  comforts,  there  need  be  no  dis- 
tinction between  the  rural  and  the  urban  home.  Not 
all  farmers  can  pay  for  all  these  advantages  and  adorn- 
ments, neither  can  all  dwellers  in  cities.  A  greater 
proportion  of  the  people  may  have  this  rich  furnishing 
of  Hfe  in  the  country  than  in  the  city,  and  that  means 
a  hopeful  outlook  for  the  rural  community. 

The  church  does  not  create  this  prosperity,  but  she 
builds  the  community  in  this  optimistic  spirit.  It  will 
be  your  joy  to  be  the  interpreter  and  mediator  of  this 
richer  Ufe.  And  this  enrichment  is  not  chiefly  in  ma- 
terial things.  There  is  a  new  hopefulness  that  rests 
upon  the  growing  appreciation  of  nature,  and  the 
redirection  of  education,  and  the  increasing  interest 
far  and  near  in  country  life.  The  farmer  is  a  natural  ^ 
complainer,  partly  because  he  has  passed  through  j 
trying  readjustments,  and  partly  because  he  is  at  once  [ 
a  small  capitalist  and  a  labourer.  No  other  man  working 
with  his  hands  fares  as  well  as  he,  but  he  compares  his 
fortune  with  the  gains  of  capital,  and  that  excites  his 
jealousy.  The  church  must  teach  the  wrong  of  envy 
and  jealousy;  she  must  teach  patience  and  slow  thrift. 
There  is  no  question  that  the  present  rural  prospect  is 
now   most   inviting.    There   is   opportunity  for   farm 


214  THE  RURAL  COMMUNITY 

homes  that  approxunate  ideal  conditions  to  an  alluring 
degree.  The  affinity  of  this  idylUc  prospect  and  the 
kingdom  of  heaven  is  very  close.  The  church  is  at 
home  in  interpreting,  advocating,  and  assisting  this 
great  enrichment. 

The  spirit  of  which  we  are  speaking  is  further  defined 
if  we  call  it  a  community  spirit,  or  a  pubhc  spirit.  We 
might  have  all  that  has  been  suggested  without  cen- 
tring it  in  the  community.  A  tract  of  land  six  miles 
square  might  be  covered  with  these  ideal  homes,  and 
every  family  might  find  its  social  centre  in  a  city  just 
over  the  border  on  one  side  or  another.  There  is 
distinct  danger  of  losing  the  coromunity  spirit  in  the 
new  world  order.  The  growing  centralization  and  im- 
perialism can  be  resisted  only  by  the  development  of 
I  local  self-consciousness  and  local  community  spirit. 
We  wish,  then,  that  our  prosperous  and  happy  house- 
holds shall  be  united  in  a  single  group  which  shall 
administer  certain  great  interests  collectively.  I  would 
make  local  self-government  vital  in  the  Repubhc.  I 
would  develop  the  town  consciousness,  or  the  com- 
munity consciousness,  to  the  greatest  possible  vigour. 
Only  thus  is  it  possible  to  place  the  responsibilities  of 
government  soHdly  upon  the  people.  It  is  necessary, 
therefore,  that  individuals  and  families  merge  them- 
selves in  the  group,  cultivate  the  spirit  of  loyalty  to 
the  community,  and  make  whatever  sacrifices  are  neces- 
sary for  the  general  good.  And  this  means  that  the 
detached  household  finds  expression  for  a  common  life 
in  social  institutions.    These  we  may  now  consider. 


THE  RURAL  COMMUNITY  215 

The  three  requisites  in  building  the  community  are  af 
base  of  prosperous  families,  a  spirit  that  animates  and  j 
unites,  and  institutions  of  a  suitable  character.  I 
believe  in  keeping  the  rural  social  structure  very  simple. 
There  is  a  special  reason  for  care  in  this  regard.  You 
are  familiar  with  the  story  of  rural  depletion.  You 
know  how  startling  are  the  facts  concerning  the  power 
of  one  man  equipped  with  modem  machinery  as  com- 
pared with  the  efficiency  of  another  working  in  the  old 
way.  Multitudes  of  people  left  the  country  primarily 
because  there  was  no  longer  work  for  them.  There 
was,  however,  no  such  sweeping  reduction  of  population 
on  the  farms  as  the  estimates  of  efficiency  would  imply, 
for  the  reason  that  when  all  were  counted  a  man  and  a 
fraction  of  a  man  were  found  on  the  average  farm,  so 
that  the  possible  reduction  was  from  that  fraction  of 
a  man  to  a  smaller  fraction.  But  it  must  be  remem- 
bered, also,  that  household  manufactures  have  been 
transferred  to  factories.  There  is,  moreover,  a  sUght 
tendency  to  combine  two  or  more  small  and  poor  farms, 
—  rich  farms  are  more  likely  to  be  divided.  Taking^ 
these  movements  together  the  aggregate  result  is  a, 
normal  depletion  of  a  purely  agricultural  community 
from  ten  to  forty  per  cent  according  to  local  conditions.  | 
Many  communities  have  kept  the  ranks  full  by  other  |  , 
sustaining  industries  or  by  a  more  intensive  agriculture. 
In  New  England  this  depletion  has  nearly  run  its  course; 
in  New  York  it  is  still  somewhat  marked;  in  the  farther 
West  it  is  conspicuous  and  as  yet  less  retarded.  In  the 
country  as  a  whole  there  will  be  some  further  thinning 


216  THE  RURAL  COMMUNITY 

of  the  rural  population,  although  the  rural  aggregate 
shows  amazing  increase.  Two  or  three  decades  hence 
the  rural  exodus  will  be  but  a  memory,  and  thenceforth 
the  typical  rural  community  will  have  a  denser  popula- 
tion from  year  to  year.  The  support  of  fast-growing 
cities  seems  to  promise  that  ultimate  result.  Hopeful 
as  is  the  prospect,  at  present  the  normal  condition  is 
that  of  depletion,  from  which  the  obvious  inference  is 
that  social  institutions  should  be  as  simple  as  possible. 
A_  di^^iiiished  population  must  have  a  lighter  burden 
of  responsibility;  at  least,  it  is  reasonable  that  social 
institutions  should  be  readjusted  to  suit  present  needs. 
The  warning  is  urgent  against  the  inconsiderate  intro- 
duction of  new  organizations  and  methods.  It  is 
natural  that  young  ministers  who  are  familiar  with 
successful  modes  of  social  ameHoration  in  cities  should 
be  ambitious  to  establish  them  in  the  country.  Great 
care  should  be  taken  not  to  overweight  the  rural  social 
structure.  A  typical  illustration  here  is  the  County 
Young  Men's  Christian  Association.  Fortunately,  the 
direction  of  this  work  is  in  the  care  of  a  very  judicious 
committee  which  has  devised  a  plan  for  the  rural  com- 
munities which  is  altogether  different  from  the  urban 
methods.  Yet  even  this  modified  plan  must  derive  its 
chief  financial  support  from  a  few  rich  men.  You  must 
always  ask  concerning  an  institution.  Can  the  people 
sustain  it?  And  this  is  much  more  than  a  question  of 
finance,  for  the  real  support  of  a  social  enterprise  calls 
for  a  body  of  people  who  need  it  and  who  are  able  and 
willing  to  bear  the  burden  of  labour  that  it  imposes. 


THE  RURAL  COMMUNITY  217 

The  disposition  of  the  people  must  be  carefully  con- 
sidered before  an  institution  is  launched.  Here  youi 
must  remember  the  peculiar  conservatism  of  the  rural 
mind.  This  inertia  sometimes  is  a  genuine  prudence, 
for  there  may  be  a  very  proper  fear  that  after  a  brief 
enthusiasm  there  will  be  no  adequate  constituency  for 
the  movement.  A  hustler  irritates  the  countryman.* 
You  may  be  as  earnest  and  as  aggressive  as  you  please 
if  you  are  quiet  and  well  poised.  The  rural  pace  is 
slow,  and  it  cannot  be  changed  suddenly.  Do  not 
introduce  what  suits  your  mind;  first  ascertain  whether 
your  project  so  far  suits  the  mind  of  the  people  as  to 
win  their  cooperation. 

And  you  must  have  regard  to  the  sUght  leisure  of 
country  people.  If  you  propose  to  work  for  the  few 
Idlers  who  may  be  found  in  every  conmiunity,  you  may 
assume  as  much  leisure  as  you  please.  A  social  institu- 
tion, as  distinguished  from  a  mere  device  for  rescue, 
cannot  use  this  idle  fringe  of  industrious  hfe.  A  gen- 
uine social  institution  must  be  for  the  busy  people  who 
really  constitute  the  community.  It  will  be  your 
problem  to  secure  some  relaxation  of  the  tenseness  of 
labour  by  encouraging  congenial  recreation,  but  you 
can  count  upon  comparatively  httle  freedom  for  the 
social  activities  you  may  introduce.  This  means  that 
you  must  be  a  close  economist  in  your  devices,  and 
that  you  must  choose  those  which  promise  the  greatest 
return  for  the  least  expenditure  of  time.  To  cover  the 
field  with  book  clubs  is  better  than  to  place  a  reading- 
room  in  the  village.    A  library  is  eminently  a  rural 


II 


218  THE  RURAL  COMMUNITY 

institution,  for  it  makes  no  demand  except  for  evenings 
which  are  spent  restfuUy  at  home. 

Simplicity  in  social  institutions  is  secured  by  keeping 
as  close  as  possible  to  the  essential  social  structure. 
Your  social  institutions  should  be  structural.  The 
municipal  organization  —  the  town  meeting  or  its 
equivalent  —  is  fundamental.  The  town  meeting  has 
two  chief  functions  —  raising  and  appropriating  money, 
which  means  the  support  of  the  conmiunity,  and  the 
defense  of  the  moral  order,  or  the  guarding  of  the  com- 
munity. Next  is  the  school,  which  transmits  the  tra- 
dition of  knowledge,  and  improves  the  community. 
Then  comes  the  church,  which  is  the  community  organ- 
ized for  worship  and  for  moral  instruction  and  influence. 
To  support,  to  guard,  to  educate,  to  maintain  fellowship 
with  God  through  spiritual  and  moral  ideals  —  this  is 
all  that  is  necessary  for  a  community.  A  Ubrary  is 
desirable,  but  let  that  be  the  crown  of  the  school  sys- 
tem —  the  means  of  hfelong  education.  Some  kind  of 
social  organization  is  helpful  —  an  organization  for 
recreation,  for  intellectual  conference,  for  practical  help- 
fulness and  cooperation.  These  functions  may  be 
assumed  by  the  church,  but  on  the  whole  it  is  better 
that  they  should  be  laid  off  upon  a  community  organ- 
ization. The  church,  of  course,  will  provide,  as  seems 
expedient,  for  the  social  life,  and  here,  as  elsewhere,  a 
lack  in  the  social  outfit  will  be  suppUed  by  the  church 
if  possible.  There  should  be  in  the  church  or  apart 
from  it  one  comprehensive  social  organization  for  the 
community.    The  grange  is  the  nearest  approximation 


THE  RURAL  COMMUNITY  219 

to  the  ideal  which  we  have.    This,  then,  is  the  structure  j 
of  rural  society  —  the  town  meeting,   the  school,   to  I 
which  is  attached  the  hbrary,  the  church,  and  some 
social  organization.    To   this  order  you  should   con-  j 
form.     Let  the  town  raise  the  great  funds  by  taxation; 
let  the  town  officers  enforce  the  laws;  do  not  encourage 
a  parochial  school;  do  not  duplicate  the  pubHc  library 
in  the  Sunday  school;  neither  fight  the  fraternal  orders 
nor  concede  that  a  social  organization  with  a  religious 
ritual  is  a  substitute  for  the  church. 

The  wise  pohcy  is  to  strengthen  these  institutions. 
There  are  original  minds  that  must  always  search  for 
some  new  thing,  and  for  variety  and  freshness  you  may 
welcome  many  social  inventions.  You  will  exercise 
your  own  ingenuity  in  these  devices.  Do  not  expect 
any  of  these  ephemeral  things  to  last,  and  do  not  allow 
them  to  weaken  the  social  structure.  Be  content  that 
you  have  local  self-government,  a  progressive  school,  a 
vital  church,  and  a  serviceable  social  organization.  A 
battleship  may  be  enriched  variously;  stripped  for 
action  there  remain  the  ship,  the  armament,  and  the 
crew.  In  a  community  there  are  three  essentials  —  the  . 
JtQwn,  the  school,  and  the  church;  stripped  for  action 
there  must  be  these  institutions;  for  pleasant  voyages 
the  grange,  or  its  equivalent,  is  a  worthy  addition. 

If  we  are  to  keep  the  social  structure  simple,  it  is 
important  that  institutions  should  not  be  dupHcated. 
Fortunately  we  cannot  have  a  rump  town  meeting. 
We  still  have  the  district  school,  the  sectarian  church, 
and  all  manner  of  lodges,   orders,   and  fragmentary 


220  THE  RURAL  COMMUNITY 

associations.  The  ideal  is  a  centralized  school,  a  com- 
munity church,  and  a  comprehensive  social  organiza- 
tion. Practically  we  must  deal  with  a  situation  in 
which  division  exceeds  all  justification.  Local  jeal- 
ousies keep  the  schools  apart  when  the  pupils  are  insuffi- 
cient. Vigorous  churches  are  not  likely  to  unite,  and 
feeble  ones  persist  in  their  course  to  the  bitter  end. 
Social  ingenuity  will  multiply  the  clubs  and  associations, 
each  of  which  falls  heir  to  the  propagating  spirit.  We 
are,  however,  in  an  age  of  consolidation;  the  central 
school  is  coming  fast;  the  grange  is  gaining  the  lead 
over  its  rivals;  the  conmiunity  church  is  much  more 
than  an  ideal. 

It  will  be  a  notable  forward  step  when  home  mission- 
ary fimds  are  restricted  to  a  single  church  in  communi- 
ties of  less  than  a  thousand  people.  I  am  confident 
that  the  hesitation  of  young  men  to  enter  the  Christian 
ministry  is  due,  in  no  small  degree,  to  their  fear  that 
they  may  be  called  to  give  their  lives  to  a  fraction  of  a 
community,  the  whole  of  which  they  would  be  com- 
petent to  serve,  with  the  consequent  maiming  of  their 
powers  and  the  denial  of  fair  compensation  for  labour. 
In  your  choice  of  fields  you  may  wisely  favour  the  one 
where  the  people  beheve  in  the  community  church  and 
desire  you  to  do  your  utmost  in  directing  the  community 
life.  When  sectarian  churches  cannot  secure  ministers 
in  competition  with  community  churches,  perhaps  even 
denominational  blindness  will  see  a  new  fight. 

Great  is  the  fascination  of  a  fifework  as  a  constructive 
engineer  in  building  communities.     I  will  not  contrast 


OP   THE  \ 

UNIVERSITY    ] 

THE  RURAL  COMMUNITY  221 

this  with  the  joy  of  saving  souls^  for  he  who  knows  no 
way  of  saving  souls  will  be  powerless  to  redirect  a  com- 
munity. There  is  no  contrast  between  the  old  and  the 
new  way.  You  may  do  all  that  ministers  ever  have 
done,  and  then  go  on  to  do  these  new  things.  And  yet 
why  do  we  speak  of  new  things?  Were  not  the  early 
churches  in  New  England  community  churches?  Did 
not  the  church  of  our  fathers  impose  upon  ministers 
the  duty  of  leadership?  Was  it  not  the  conscious  aim 
in  the  old  days  to  foster  industry,  and  direct  morals, 
and  inspire  education  with  a  view  to  the  public  good? 
Great  as  was  the  stress  upon  the  salvation  of  souls,  was 
there  not  also  a  desire  to  mould  the  minds  of  men  for 
citizenship  and  to  unite  them  in  a  joyous  brotherhood? 
The  new  emphasis  in  our  day  calls  us  back  to  the  earlier 
ideal.  Of  that  emphasis  —  whether  the  idea  be  new  or 
old  —  there  can  be  no  doubt.  A  vigorous  campaign 
for  rural  progress  is  sweeping  on  its  way,  whose  leaders 
seek  a  new  community  of  a  higher  type  than  the  world 
has  seen.  Though  many  of  these  enthusiastic  workers 
come  from  the  ranks  of  secular  service  and  secular 
education,  with  astonishing  unanimity,  with  a  pene- 
trating insight,  they  declare  that  this  progressive  move- 
ment waits  upon  the  reinvigoration  of  the  country 
church,  and  that  the  coimtry  minister  holds  the  position 
of  supreme  strategy. 

The  church  is  the  living  fountain  of  social  forces; 
from  her  go  forth  social  wisdom  and  social  facility.  To 
her  is  committed  the  great  commandment,  ^'Thou  shalt 
love  thy  neighbour  as  thyself."    By  her  sovereign  power 


222  THE  RURAL  COMMUNITY 

of  love,  begotten  of  the  love  of  Christ,  the  church  has 
power  to  soften  asperity,  to  allay  jealousy,  to  incite 
sacrifice,  and  thus  is  she  able  to  rear  a  people  capable 
of  living  together  in  friendliness  and  mutual  helpfulness. 
The  country  people  need  new  riches;  they  need  a  new 
spirit  of  ideaUsm,  of  content,  of  hope,  of  cooperation; 
they  need  new  institutions,  or  old  institutions  raised  to 
a  new  vigour.  All  these  are  sure  to  come  if  the  church 
follows  its  peerless  social  leader  and  remains  faithful  to 
the  gospel  of  redeeming  love. 


THE  ESSENTIALS  OF  A  MINISTRY  TO  MEN 

BY 

Rev.  Anson  Phelps  Stokes,  Jr. 

Secretary  of  Yale  University  and  Assistant  at  St. 
PauVs  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  of  New  Haven.  A 
gradvxde  of  Yale  College  in  the  Glass  of  1896. 


THE   ESSENTIALS    OF   A   MINISTRY   TO  MEN 

EVERY  talent  can  be  turned  to  good  account  in 
a  ministry  to  men.  Musical  ability,  engineer- 
ing training,  fondness  for  nature,  passion  for  adventure, 
knowledge  of  modern  science,  and  interest  in  the  drama, 
have  been  of  inestimable  advantage  to  different  min- 
isters I  have  known.  Every  atom  of  knowledge  that 
you  have  acquired,  exery  experience  of  your  life,  every 
hobby  that  you  have  ridden,  can  be  made  to  help. 
These  give  points  of  contact  with  varying  types  of  men, 
and  when  the  minister  has  found  a  point  of  contact 
with  a  given  man,  his  battle  is  half  won.  But  these 
things  are  all  on  the  outer  edge.  They  do  not  touch  the 
heart  of  the  matter.    They  are  helps,  but  not  essentials. 

Our  purpose  is  to  get  at  the  essentials,  the  things 
that  a  man  needs  to  be  a  useful  minister,  the  things 
without  which  he  cannot  get  along.  I  shall  name 
three.  They  seem  to  be  of  the  nature  of  required  qual- 
ities rather  than  of  "electives."  If  a  man  has  them  or 
can  acquire  them,  I  would  urge  him  to  consider  seriously 
entering  the  ministry.  If  they  are  out  of  his  reach, 
I  would  hope  that  he  would  choose  another  profession. 

They  are : 
I.  Knowledge  of  and  faith  in  Jesus  Christ. 
II.  Knowledge  of  and  faith  in  one's  fellow  men. 

III.  Knowledge  of  and  faith  in  one's  self. 
225 


226  A  MINISTRY  TO  MEN 

I.  Knowledge  of  and  faith  in  Jesus  Christ,  —  To  the 
Christian  minister,  Jesus  Christ  is  not  merely  one  of 
the  world's  heroes.  He  is  the  revelation  of  God.  It  is 
on  this  account  that  he  interests  us  absorbingly.  We 
may  have  difficulty  in  framing  a  satisfactory  theory 
of  his  person,  but  as  ministers,  in  every  branch  of  the 
Church,  we  feel  that  he  had  in  Palestine  and  has  to-day 
an  altogether  unique  power  of  bringing  us  into  God's 
presence.  And  although  we  gladly  learn  from  every 
prophet.  Christian  and  Pagan,  we  find  that  our  em- 
phasis in  matters  spiritual  is  like  that  of  the  disciples 
at  the  Transfiguration,  we  "see  Jesus  only."  History, 
intellectual  reasoning,  the  world  of  nature,  all  help  us  to 
know  God,  but  Jesus  gives  us  a  conviction  of  God's 
reality  greater  than  them  all.  This  is  not  a  superstition; 
it  is  the  result  of  the  experience,  the  experimenta- 
tion of  tens  of  thousands  of  strong  men  during  nine- 
teen centuries.  Our  views  of  Jesus  may  differ  greatly; 
the  words  Atonement  and  Incarnation  and  Divinity 
may  mean  very  different  things  to  us  from  what  they 
meant  to  our  parents,  but  Jesus  Christ  —  his  teach- 
ings, his  life,  his  character,  his  inward  motive  —  could 
not  have  meant  more  to  them  than  they  do  to  us.  We 
may  have  given  up  verbal  inspiration  and  a  personal 
devil  and  emphasis  on  dogmatic  creeds,  but  we  still 
cling  to  the  man  of  Galilee  as  the  Way,  the  Truth,  and 
the  Life.  We  are  persuaded  that  without  his  revela- 
tion of  the  character  of  God,  without  his  teaching  of 
the  brotherhood  of  man,  without  the  manifestation  in 
his  own  life  of  the  actual  spiritual  unity  which  may 


A  MINISTRY  TO  MEN  227 

exist  between  the  Father  and  his  children,  life  would  be 
immeasurably  impoverished. 

So  it  is  that  I  place  as  the  first  essential  for  a  min- 
istry to  men:  knowledge  of  and  faith  in  Jesus  Christ. 
To  give  these  is  the  main  task  of  the  Divinity  course. 
I  should  Uke  you  to  think  this  afternoon  of  your  studies 
here  as  Christocentric.  You  study  Hebrew  so  as  to 
read  in  the  original  tongue  the  books  which  formed  the 
intellectual  and  religious  backgroimd  for  the  training 
of  Jesus  Christ.  You  study  the  Gospels  so  as  to  master 
the  earliest  stories  that  have  come  down  to  us  regarding 
the  deeds,  the  words,  the  life,  the  spirit  of  Jesus  Christ. 
You  study  Church  History  so  as  to  see  the  different 
tangible  forms  which  the  revelation  of  Jesus  Christ 
has  taken  through  the  centuries.  You  study  Theol- 
ogy mainly  to  get  a  view  of  God  that  squares  with  the 
teachings  and  the  spirit  of  Jesus  Christ.  You  study 
Missions  so  as  to  see  the  non-Christian  world's  need  of 
Jesus  Christ  and  the  way  in  which  that  need  is  being 
met.  You  study  Homiletics  and  Pastoral  Care  so  as 
better  to  understand  how  to  bring  the  message  of  Jesus 
Christ  to  men.  And  so  I  might  go  all  through  the 
Divinity  curriculum  with  the  same  result.  I  could 
show  you  that  Jesus  Christ  is  or  should  be  the  core  of 
it  all.  I  hope  that  you  may  consider  this  emphasis, 
for  to  my  mind  the  first  requirement  for  the  minister 
is  that  he  should  so  know  the  Master  that  his  point  of 
view,  his  spirit,  should  become  part  of  his  second  nature. 

But  knowledge  passes  over  naturally  into  faith.  A 
man  deserving  of  the  name  cannot  really  know  Jesus 


228  A  MINISTRY  TO  MEN 

without  having  faith  in  him.  I  do  not  say  that  knowl- 
edge of  what  men  have  written  about  him  necessarily 
produces  this  confidence.  It  often  does  not.  If  you 
had  never  heard  of  Jesus  and  a  man  should  meet  you 
on  your  life's  journey  and  say:  Here  is  the  Eternal 
Christ  who  came  into  the  world  miraculously,  and  left 
the  world  miraculously,  and  was  indeed  in  Palestine 
the  very  God  Himself,  you  probably  could  not  agree 
with  his  belief.  But  if  another  should  say:  Gaze  at 
the  Man  of  Nazareth,  think  of  his  spiritual  unity  with 
God,  consider  the  wondrous  beauty  of  his  teaching 
regarding  the  Father's  love,  follow  him  and  you  can 
share  his  divine  life;  you  would  give  him  your  faith 
and  long  to  help  along  his  cause.  Christian  faith,  as 
I  imderstand  it,  is  not  giving  intellectual  assent  to  a 
group  of  statements  about  Christ,  although  every  man 
must  have  some  creed;  it  is  rather  accepting  Christ 
himself,  living  in  his  spirit,  aiming  at  that  purity  of 
hfe  to  which  with  his  help  we  may  ourselves  attain. 
To  have  faith  in  Christ  is  somewhat  hke  having  faith 
in  the  noblest  of  friends,  but  much  more.  It  is  giving 
to  him  our  trust,  our  allegiance,  our  devotion,  our 
loyalty,  and  receiving  from  him  the  calm  assurance 
of  God's  love.  This  is  the  faith  that  moves  mountains. 
It  is  based  on  an  intellectual  conviction  of  Christ's 
worthiness  to  be  our  Master,  but  with  formal  defini- 
tions it  has  little  to  do. 

Such  knowledge  and  such  faith  appeal  powerfully 
to  men.  A  strong  man  likes  to  see  a  well-based  con- 
fidence and  a  loyal  devotion.    We  are  all  at  heart 


A  MINISTRY  TO  MEN  229 

hero-worshippers.  Knowledge  alone  will  not  satisfy 
men,  faith  alone  will  not  convince  them,  but  when 
knowledge  and  faith  are  miited  and  have  Jesus  Christ 
for  their  object,  and  he  is  presented  in  his  simpUcity 
and  greatness  by  one  Uving  in  his  spirit,  the  combina- 
tion is  well-nigh  irresistible. 

It  is  not  the  religion  of  a  theory  that  I  am  asking 
you  to  present  to  men,  nor  the  cold  reUgion  of  conduct 
alone.  It  is  the  religion  which  has  as  its  centre  the 
strongest  figure  in  history,  Jesus,  the  prophet  of  Naz- 
areth. I  do  not  say  that  you  cannot  do  good  in  the 
world  without  this  knowledge  and  faith,  for  you  doubt- 
less can,  but  your  effectiveness  and  your  peace  of 
mind  will  be  greatly  stimulated  by  it.  Without  it,  if 
you  have  a  strong  theistic  behef  or  a  distinctly  spiritual 
point  of  view,  you  may  teach  philosophy;  without  it, 
if  you  have  a  strong  ethical  impulse,  you  may  help  in 
the  work  of  social  amehoration;  but  in  the  long  run  it 
is  faith  in  Christ  that  is  the  greatest  help  to  our  beUef 
in  God,  and  it  is  the  same  faith  which  more  than  any- 
thing else  stimulates  to  social  service.  As  a  leading 
London  settlement  worker,  himself  an  agnostic,  once 
said  to  a  friend  of  mine,  "The  more  I  go  on,  the  more 
I  reaUze  that  it  is  the  men  of  Christian  faith  upon  whom 
I  must  rely  for  my  helpers." 

My  advice,  then,  to  you,  if  you  would  be  successful 
in  your  ministry  to  men,  is  to  cultivate  Christ  as  the 
open  door  to  God.  Interpret  him  as  broadly  as  you 
will,  but  make  him  the  centre  of  knowledge  and  of 
faith. 


230  A  MINISTRY  TO  MEN 

II.  Knowledge  of  and  faith  in  our  fellow  men.  —  The 
second  essential  for  a  ministry  to  men  is  that  you 
should  know  and  believe  in  them. 

The  most  successful  ministers  are  marked  by  this 
characteristic.  Beecher,  Bushnell,  Brooks,  Moody,  — 
the  great  religious  forces  of  the  last  generation,  —  were 
all  men  who  knew  and  believed  in  their  fellows.  The 
great  problems  which  face  the  church  to-day  cannot 
be  solved  without  such  knowledge  and  faith. 

Consider  first  the  problem  of  adjusting  beUef  to  knowl- 
edge. The  minister  who  thinks  that  intelligent  twen- 
tieth-century humanity  will  accept  things  on  the  mere 
say-so  of  church  council  or  prelate  is  greatly  mistaken. 
He  must  be  able  to  give  a  reason  for  the  hope  that  is 
in  him.  Men  to-day  do  their  own  thinking,  and  a 
theology  to  satisfy  them  must  square  with  the  results  of 
modern  thought,  observation,  and  scholarship.  The 
minister  who  does  not  know  his  fellow  men  and  their 
mental  attitude  will  not  appeal  to  them.  I  know  a 
clergyman  of  deep  spirituality  and  earnestness  who 
appeals  to  a  certain  type  of  woman  and  of  sentimental 
youth,  but  who  fails  in  his  power  to  interest  strong 
men,  for  the  simple  reason  that  he  has  not  associated 
with  them  and  cannot  enter  into  their  point  of  view. 

Another  problem  is  that  of  the  church  and  labour. 
The  American  working  man  in  our  cities  has  a  deep 
respect  for  Jesus  Christ  and,  speaking  generally,  a 
deep  distrust  of  the  church.  The  investigators  from 
Wyckoff  to  Rauschenbusch  have  agreed  on  this  point. 
There  is  great  need  of  reconciliation  between  the  repre- 


A  MINISTRY  TO  MEN  231 

sentatives  of  organized  labour  and  of  organized  re- 
ligion. This  is  equally  desirable  from  the  standpoint 
of  each.  The  only  ministers  who  are  helping  this 
movement  are  the  ones  who  thoroughly  know  their 
fellows.  If  a  man  appreciates  the  conditions  of  mod- 
ern factory  life,  if  he  understands  the  ideals  which 
underlie  the  trade  union  and  the  various  socialistic 
movements,  if  he  realizes  the  labourer's  small  margin 
of  possible  savings  and  the  pressure  of  modern  indus- 
trialism, then  he  can  interest  him  in  religion  —  other- 
wise, speaking  broadly,  he  cannot.  A  large  heart 
and  great  earnestness  are  important  aids,  but  if  you 
would  bridge  the  gap  between  the  church  and  the 
masses  in  your  community,  you  must  know  the  labour- 
ing man,  —  his  hardships,  hopes,  interests.  Our  Roman 
Catholic  brothers  can  teach  us  a  lesson  here.  Knowl- 
edge derived  second-hand  will  not  do.  We  must  have 
direct  knowledge,  personal  touch. 

A  third  modern  problem  is  that  of  church  unity.  It 
will  bulk  larger  fifty  years  hence  than  it  does  now. 
Our  grandchildren  will  think  the  rivalry  of  present-day 
churches,  the  lack  of  more  earnest  effort  towards  re- 
union, and  the  exclusiveness  of  some  of  our  religious 
bodies,  as  about  as  unchristian  as  we  think  the  burning 
of  heretics  to  have  been.  But,  thank  God,  things  are 
getting  better.  We  are  advancing  in  the  matter  of 
Christian  unity,  and  when  we  have  become  one  in  spirit, 
it  will  be  much  easier  to  become  one  in  fact.  But  the 
movement  can  be  greatly  accelerated  if  wisely  led. 
The   average   small   American   town   has   double   the 


232  A  MINISTRY  TO  MEN 

needed  number  of  churches,  with  the  inevitable  waste 
and  the  unavoidable  friction.  This  condition  gives 
scoffers  one  of  their  best  chances.  It  must  be  changed. 
The  remedy  can  come  only  through  men  who  know 
their  fellows,  —  their  differing  emotional  tendencies, 
their  varying  intellectual  powers,  their  inherited  pecu- 
liarities. The  minister  who  thinks  all  men  can  be  sat- 
isfied by  the  simple  worship  of  our  Puritan  ancestors 
does  not  know  many  types  of  humanity.  The  min- 
ister who  thinks  that  the  Episcopal  ritual,  as  it  stands, 
is  perfectly  suited  to  the  entire  world  is  one  whose 
knowledge  of  mankind  is  somewhat  limited.  For  the 
solution  of  the  problem  of  church  unity  a  man  needs 
a  knowledge  of  church  history  and  of  the  teachings  of 
Christ,  but  he  also  needs  practical  psychology,  the  power 
of  understanding  the  mental  attitudes  and  needs  of 
different  types  of  men. 

I  have  considered  briefly  three  typical  problems  that 
confront  us  —  a  theological  problem,  the  adjustment 
of  faith  to  knowledge;  a  social  problem,  the  return 
of  the  labouring  masses  to  the  church;  an  ecclesias- 
tical problem,  the  reuniting  of  Christendom.  For  the 
solution  of  each  of  these,  I  might  even  say  for  the  taking 
of  any  step  towards  the  solution  of  any  of  these,  knowl- 
edge of  men  is  essential.  Without  it  we  cannot  adjust 
Christianity  to  the  needs  of  the  present  with  any  success. 

My  original  contention  demanded  not  only  knowl- 
edge of  our  fellow  men  but  also  faith  in  them.  The 
minister  who  is  going  to  help  reconstruct  theology  to-day 
must,  if  I  mistake  not,  put  down  faith  in  man  as  his 


A  MINISTRY  TO  MEN  233 

fundamental  postulate.  Most  moderns  do  not  see 
that  Christianity  has  much  of  a  message  for  them  unless 
it  is  largely  a  religion  of  humanity  teaching  the  pos- 
sibility of  the  kingdom  of  God  on  earth.  The  man  of 
the  twentieth  century  realizes  his  own  power,  his  des- 
tiny, and  no  man  who  tries  to  develop  his  theological 
teachings  without  understanding  this  will  succeed. 
The  American  of  to-day  knows  the  potentiality  of 
common  humanity.  Lincoln's  life  has  taught  its 
unforgetable  lesson  and  the  minister  must  recognize 
it.  He  cannot  afford  to  be  ignorant  of  man's  large 
powers,  his  essential  divinity. 

Again,  the  man  who  would  draw  back  the  Protestant 
masses  to  the  church  must  have  faith  in  them.  The 
minister  who  talks  of  our  "immigrant  rabble,"  who  has 
no  confidence  in  plain  people,  will  never  fill  his  church 
with  wage-earners.  Whether  we  like  it  or  not  we  are 
more  than  blind  if  we  do  not  see  that  we  are  living  in 
a  democratic  age,  an  age  in  which  the  people  are  grow- 
ing in  power  and  are  impatient  of  domination  from 
"above."  This  being  true,  the  minister  who  wishes 
"the  common  people"  to  hear  him  gladly,  as  they  did 
Jesus  of  Nazareth,  must  have  a  large  faith  in  them. 

Must  we  not  also  add  faith  in  our  fellow  men  to 
our  qualifications  if  we  would  aid  the  movement  for 
church  unity?  It  is  only  the  man  who  has  a  hopeful 
confidence  in  others  who  really  believes  that  some  day 
all  unworthy  rivalry  between  Christians  will  cease, 
and  who  will  work  earnestly  towards  that  end.  Think 
of  Turkish  soldiers  in  the  alleged  manger  under  the 


234  A  MINISTRY  TO  MEN 

church  at  Bethlehem  keeping  guard  between  warring 
Christian  sects  to  prevent  any  one  from  having  a  single 
candle  more  than  its  quota!  Is  it  not  a  cruel  mockery? 
And  think  of  a  man  who  wrote  to  a  friend  of  mine  lately 
asking  his  endorsement  for  a  vacant  parish  and  giving 
as  one  of  his  qualifications  that  he  had  succeeded  in 
breaking  up  two  rival  congregations  by  the  force  of 
his  preaching!  That  man  could  not  have  had  a  broad, 
generous  feeUng  towards  different  kinds  of  humanity. 
If  we  would  really  advance  church  unity  we  must 
have  faith  in  men,  confidence  in  the  reahty  of  their 
different  convictions,  realizing  that  others  have  much 
truth  that  we  need  and  that  the  church  of  the  future 
must  be  broad  enough  to  include  all  who  yearn  to  be 
worthy  of  the  name  of  Christian. 

And  so  it  comes  about  that  I  would  place  knowl- 
edge of  and  faith  in  our  fellows  as  the  second  essential 
for  a  ministry  to  men. 

III.  Knowledge  of  and  faith  in  one^s  self.  —  The  third 
essential  for  the  minister  to  men  is  that  he  should 
thoroughly  imderstand  himself.  "Know  thyself"  has 
been  a  favourite  motto  of  philosophers  from  the  days  of 
Greece,  but  ministers  have  not  taken  the  lesson  enough 
to  heart.  Yet  of  all  men  they  most  need  to  know 
their  own  limitations  and  their  own  powers. 

"  Self-reverence,  self-knowledge,  self-control,  — 
These  three  alone  lead  life  to  sovereign  power." 

No  minister  is  a  rehable  encyclopaedia  of  all  knowl- 
edge and  wisdom,  and  it  is  best  for  him  and  for  the 


A  MINISTRY  TO  MEN  235 

community  that  he  thoroughly  understand  this  fact. 
The  minister  who  thinks  that  he  can  speak  authori- 
tatively on  the  solution  of  the  Hquor  problem,  and  on 
biblical  criticism,  and  on  educational  reform,  and  on  the 
organization  of  industry,  and  on  the  race  issue,  can  be 
found  in  every  community.  But  as  a  matter  of  fact 
I  only  know  two  or  three  ministers  who  have  studied 
any  one  of  these  questions  really  deeply.  A  man  of 
trained  judgment  may  act  with  force  and  intelhgence 
in  several  capacities  and  may  show  his  interest  in 
every  good  movement,  but  no  man  can  speak  with 
convincing  knowledge  and  wisdom  regarding  the  solu- 
tion of  more  than  one  or  two  great  problems.  It  will 
be  a  help  to  you  if  you  realize  your  limitations.  Strong 
men  in  your  community  will  tie  up  to  you  if  they  find 
that  you  are  humble  and  that  you  prefer  to  say  that 
you  do  n6t  know  to  giving  an  off-hand  solution  for 
every  problem.  In  a  small  book  which  was  handed 
to  me  by  an  upper  classman  when  I  entered  Yale 
were  the  words  "Modesty  on  the  part  of  Freshmen  is 
the  best  policy,  freshness  the  sure  road  to  social  suicide.'^ 
Apply  for  the  moment  the  term  Freshmen  to  men  just 
starting  out  in  the  ministry,  and  interpret  the  word 
"social"  broadly,  and  this  bit  of  homely  student  ad- 
vice will  not  prove  a  bad  one  for  you  and  for  me.  If 
we  are  modest  about  the  things  we  have  not  studied 
deeply  we  shall  carry  double  the  conviction  in  the  few 
fields  where  we  are  entitled  to  speak  with  some  author- 
ity. If  you  men  make  religion  your  master  passion, 
your  major,  as  you  should  in  your  ministry,  and  if 


236  A  MINISTRY  TO  MEN 

you  take  up  as  your  minor  some  one  social  field,  such 
as  the  liquor  question,  industrial  education,  or  child 
labour,  and  study  it  thoroughly,  you  will  speak  with 
power,  and  your  ministry  will  be  richer  in  results  than 
if  you  scatter  over  a  broad  field.  It  comes  down  mainly 
to  knowing  your  own  Hmitations  and  your  largest 
spheres  of  influence,  and  this  means  concentration, 
for  in  these  days  of  expert  knowledge  and  speciahzation 
few  men  can  gain  the  hearing  of  an  intelligent  audience 
in  many  fines.  Occasionally  some  one  with  a  touch  of 
genius  arises  who  is  known  as  a  master  in  widely  differ- 
ent fields,  such  as  Hopkinson  Smith,  in  engineering, 
Hterature,  and  water  colours,  but  such  cases  are  rare, 
and  it  is  well  that  we  should  know  it.  The  great  men 
in  the  ministry  reafize  this.  PhiUips  Brooks  used  to 
tell  the  students  at  the  Cambridge  Divinity  School 
not  to  enter  largely  into  boys'  clubs  and  outside 
teaching  and  mission  work,  unless  necessary  for  self- 
support,  for  he  befieved  that  young  men  needed  in  their 
seminary  days  to  concentrate  on  absorbing  the  great 
verities  of  refigion  from  study  and  contemplation.  A 
distinguished  preacher  told  me  recently  that  he  had 
determined  for  the  rest  of  his  life  to  devote  his  main 
energy  outside  of  his  regular  work  as  a  minister  to 
the  single  cause  of  Anti-militarism  or  International 
Peace.  Such  examples  should  be  suggestive  to  us. 
Let  us  reafize  our  fimitations  of  time,  of  knowledge, 
and  of  influence.  Let  us  find  some  work  in  which  there 
is  a  special  opportimity  for  us  to  help  bring  in  the  king- 
dom of  God,  some  field  which  appeals  to  our  own  judg- 


A  MINISTRY  TO  MEN  237 

ment  and  our  own  capacities.  Then  let  us  master  it, 
and  although  our  sympathies  and  interests  may  in- 
clude the  whole  world,  we  shall  restrict  the  subjects 
about  which  we  speak  ex-cathedra. 

''Know  thyself"  implies  knowledge  both  of  one's 
limitations  and  of  one's  powers. 

This  latter  carries  us  over  into  the  field  of  faith.  The 
minister  must  be  a  profound  behever  in  his  own  poten- 
tiality. If  you  do  not  think  that  with  God's  help  you 
can  become  deeply  useful  to  some  commimity  I  would 
not  advise  you  to  enter  the  ministry.  The  minister 
like  other  men  should  be  humble  as  he  thinks  of  the  gap 
between  his  own  character  and  that  of  the  Master,  but 
should  feel  exalted  as  he  reaUzes  that  there  is  in  him  a 
spark  of  the  divine  hfe.  Remember  that  one  of  the 
greatest  doctrines  of  the  Bible  is  that  you  are  created 
"in  God's  image  and  after  his  likeness."  The  door  of 
a  divine  hfe  is  open  to  you  in  much  the  same  way  as  it 
was  to  Jesus  of  Nazareth.  His  experience  of  God  is 
repeatable  to  those  who  will  follow  in  his  footsteps. 
Have  faith,  then,  in  yourself.  Believe  that  with  his 
help  you  can  have  a  vision  as  great  as  Paul  had  on  the 
Damascus  road.  Believe  that  you  can  have  an  influ- 
ence for  good  on  men  as  great  as  Peter  had  in  those 
early  days  in  Jerusalem.  Beheve  that  you  and  your 
church  can  be  guided  of  God,  just  as  truly  as  the  Dis- 
ciples were  guided  after  our  Lord's  death.  Believe  that 
Jesus  was  sincere  in  saying  "Greater  works  than  these 
shall  ye  do  because  I  go  to  my  Father."  Believe  that 
when  he  said,  "Be  ye  therefore  perfect,"  he  had  erring 


238  A  MINISTRY  TO  MEN 

men  like  you  and  me  in  mind.  Believe  that  you 
can  come  into  spiritual  communion  with  God  as  truly 
as  Jesus  did  on  the  hills  of  GaHlee.  BeUeve  that  the 
race  of  prophets  is  not  dead;  that  if  you  pray  as  they 
prayed  of  old  you,  too,  may  wrestle  with  the  world's 
sin  and  prevail.  In  a  word,  have  faith  in  yourself. 
The  man  who  speaks  with  authority,  who  knows  that 
God  has  chosen  him  to  lead  whether  in  a  great  battle 
or  a  small  one,  who  believes  that  God  will  use  him  as  his 
messenger  —  that  man  appeals  to  men. 

This,  then,  is  the  third  great  need  for  a  ministry  to 
men  —  knowledge  of  and  faith  in  one's  self.  The  knowl- 
edge must  include  both  our  powers  and  our  Umitations, 
the  faith  must  be  based  on  the  conviction  of  our  divine 
birthright  which  makes  it  possible  for  us  to  hve  con- 
stantly in  the  presence  of  our  heavenly  Father. 

If  you  have  followed  me,  you  will  think  now  of  our 
young  minister  going  out  to  help  men,  knowing  and 
believing  in  Christ,  in  his  fellow  men,  in  himself.  You 
may  think  that  another  quahty  should  be  added  —  a 
passion  for  service.  This  is  indeed  indispensable,  but 
if  a  minister  is  a  true  follower  of  Christ  and  really 
knows  his  fellow  men  and  their  pitiable  condition  he 
will  surely  long  to  serve  them.  I  use  the  phrase  ^'pas- 
sion for  service"  deliberately.  It  is  not  enough  merely 
to  intend  to  be  on  the  right  side,  you  must  yearn  to 
lead  in  the  battle  for  the  right,  you  must  have  a  longing 
to  turn  men  to  God  as  great  as  any  old-time  revivaUst, 
although  your  methods  may  be,  and  I  think  mainly 
should  be,  conservative.    You  must  strive  to  bring  in 


A  MINISTRY  TO  MEN  239 

the  kingdom  of  God  —  the  rule  of  righteousness  and 
peace,  you  must  have  an  enthusiasm  for  religion, 
you  must  be  wholly  consecrated  to  the  spiritual  life, 
you  must  have  some  of  the  old  prophetic  fire,  you 
must  have  a  keen  interest  in  the  spread  of  the  Gospel; 
but  your  threefold  knowledge  and  faith  should  give 
you  these.  They  have  not  truly  gripped  you  if  you 
do  not  feel  this  passion  for  service. 

To  summarize,  you  must  know  and  believe  in  Christ, 
and  your  highest  hope,  your  deepest  longing,  must  be 
to  get  men  to  accept  him,  that  is,  to  hear  his  words 
^'Follow  me,"  and  to  reply,  "Yes,  Master,  to  believe  in 
your  God,  to  love  mankind,  to  Hve  in  your  spirit,  will 
henceforth  be  my  goal." 

You  must  know  and  beUeve  in  yom'  fellow  men,  and 
must  try,  in  season  and  out  of  season,  with  the  use  of  the 
calmest  judgment,  but  also  of  the  truest  fervour,  to  lead 
them  individually  and  collectively  to  the  Christian  life. 

You  must  know  and  beheve  in  yourself,  considering 
it  your  joyous  daily  privilege  to  help  make  other  men 
strong,  humble,  independent,  reahzing  themselves  in 
their  own  lives  what  it  means  to  be  sons  of  God. 

What  a  noble  field  for  service  the  Christian  ministry 
affords  its  members  with  such  ideals  as  these !  It  opens 
to  men  of  patriotism,  of  intellectual  force,  and  of  large 
spirituality  an  opportunity  to  influence  character  that 
can  hardly  be  matched  by  any  other  profession.  If  you 
students  know  and  believe  in  Christ,  in  your  fellow  men, 
and  in  yourselves,  I  bid  you  go  out  into  the  work  of 
the  church  confident  that  God  will  bless  your  ministry. 


THE  MINISTRY  OF   MENTAL  HEALING 

BY 

Rev.  George  B.  Cutten,  Ph.D. 

Dr.  Cutten  is  pastor  of  the  First  Baptist  Churchj 
Columbus,  Ohio,  and  the  author  of  ''The  Psychological 
Phenomena  of  Christianity,'^  and  other  similar  works. 
He  graduated  from  Yah  Divinity  School  in  1903. 


THE  MINISTRY  OF  MENTAL  HEALING 

MENTAL  healing  has  attracted  a  great  deal  of 
attention  in  recent  years.  It  has  appeared  in 
an  increasing  variety  of  forms,  and  we  frequently  hear 
it  referred  to  as  a  modern  movement.  So  firmly  does 
it  seem  to  have  become  intrenched  in  the  minds  of 
many  as  a  nineteenth  or  twentieth  centm*y  discovery, 
that  it  is  necessary  for  us  to  review  the  history  of  these 
phenomena  to  get  at  all  a  clear  understanding  of  them. 

So  far  from  its  being  a  modern  movement,  it  is  char- 
acteristic of  all  ages  of  which  we  have  any  history.  If 
we  could  ascertain  the  facts  it  is  reasonably  certain 
that  they  would  reveal  to  us  that  primitive  therapeutics 
consisted  of  little  else.  The  talismans,  amulets,  charms, 
and  disgusting  doses  of  medicine-men  and  witch  doctors 
could  have  no  remedial  value  in  themselves,  but  de- 
pended for  what  success  they  had  on  the  belief  of  the 
patient.  Among  savages,  the  magician  was  also  physi- 
cian and  priest,  and  certain  incantations  and  ceremonies 
guarded  against  demons  and  the  evil  eye. 

As  far  as  we  are  able  to  trace  the  subject  into  antiq- 
uity, we  find  mental  healing  the  prime  factor  in  thera- 
peutics. The  healing  touch  was  considered  of  great 
remedial  value  among  the  early  Egyptians  and  other 
Orientals.    The  Ebers  papyrus  represents  that  an  im- 

243 


244  MENTAL  HEALING 

portant  part  of  the  treatment  prior  to  1552  b.c.  con- 
sisted in  the  laying  on  of  hands,  combined  with  an 
extensive  formulary  and  ceremonial  rites.  The  early 
Hebrews,  who  derived  their  medical  knowledge  from 
Egypt,  considered  disease  a  punishment  for  sin,  and 
treated  it  accordingly.  The  Levites  were  the  sole  prac- 
titioners. The  Vedas,  the  sacred  books  of  India,  reveal 
demonology,  in  that  country,  as  a  great  influence  in  the 
practice  of,  and  a  large  part  of  the  belief  among  physi- 
cians. 

The  excavations  of  Cavvadias  at  Epidaurus  have 
furnished  us  with  much  interesting  material  concerning 
the  cures  performed  at  this  ancient  Greek  shrine  five 
himdred  years  before  the  beginning  of  the  Christian  era. 
If  the  modern  physician  still  recognizes  -ZEsculapius  as 
his  patron  saint,  he  must  have  great  respect  for  mental 
healing.  It  appears  certain  from  inscriptions  upon 
'^ stelae"  that  were  dug  up  at  Epidaurus  and  published 
in  1891,  that  the  system  of  iEsculapius  was  based  upon 
the  miracle  working  of  a  demigod,  and  not  upon  the 
medical  art  as  we  now  know  it.  The  modus  operandi 
was  unique  in  some  details.  The  patients,  mostly 
incurables,  came  laden  with  sacrifices.  After  prayer, 
they  cleansed  themselves  with  water  from  the  holy  well, 
and  offered  up  sacrifices.  Certain  ceremonial  acts  were 
then  performed  by  the  priests,  and  the  patients  were 
put  to  sleep  on  the  skins  of  the  animals  offered  at  the 
altar,  or  at  the  foot  of  the  statue  of  the  divinity,  while 
the  priest  performed  further  sacred  rites.  The  son  of 
Apollo  then  appeared  to  them  in  dreams,  attended  to 


MENTAL  HEALING  245 

the  particular  ailments  of  the  sufferers,  and  specified 
further  sacrifices  or  acts  which  would  restore  health. 
In  many  cases  the  sick  awoke  suddenly  cured.  Large 
sums  of  money  were  asked  for  these  cures;  from  one 
inscription  we  learn  that  a  sum  corresponding  to  $12,000 
was  paid  as  a  fee.  The  record  of  cures  was  carved  on 
the  temple  as  at  Lourdes  to-day,  of  which  the  following 
is  an  example: 

"Some  days  back,  a  certain  Caius,  who  was  blind, 
learned  from  an  oracle  that  he  should  repair  to  the 
temple,  put  up  his  fervent  prayers,  cross  the  sanctuary 
from  right  to  left,  place  his  five  fingers  on  the  altar,  then 
raise  his  head  and  cover  his  eyes.  He  obeyed,  and  in- 
stantly his  sight  was  restored,  amid  the  loud  acclama- 
tions of  the  multitude.  These  signs  of  the  omnipotence 
of  the  gods  were  shown  in  the  reign  of  Antoninus. '' 

It  was  not  until  five  centuries  later,  when  credulity 
concerning  miracles  was  on  the  wane,  that  the  priests 
began  to  study  and  to  apply  medical  means  in  order 
to  sustain  the  reputation  of  the  place,  and  to  keep  up 
its  enormous  revenues.  The  temple  sleep  used  at  Epi- 
daurus,  and  in  common  use  among  the  old  Greeks  and 
Egyptians,  corresponded  to  the  artificial  sleep  now 
called  hypnotism,  and  was  the  means  of  facilitating 
the  effects  of  suggestion.  Certain  churches  in  the 
Middle  Ages,  St.  Anthony  of  Padua,  for  example,  as- 
scribed  considerable  efficacy  to  a  sacred  sleep  within  its 
walls,  and  not  only  permitted  but  invited  patients  to 
sleep  there. 

A  comparison  between  the  advance  in  medical  knowl- 


246  MENTAL  HEALING 

edge  and  in  other  branches  of  learning  has  been  suc- 
cinctly drawn  by  Dr.  Hunger  in  the  following  words: 
"Aristotle  mapped  out  philosophy  and  morals  in  lines 
the  world  yet  accepts  in  the  main,  but  he  did  not  know 
the  difference  between  the  nerves  and  the  tendons. 
Rome  had  a  sound  system  of  jurisprudence  before  it 
had  a  physician,  using  only  priestcraft  for  healing. 
Cicero  was  the  greatest  lawyer  the  world  has  seen,  but 
there  was  not  a  man  in  Rome  who  could  have  cured 
him  of  a  colic.  The  Greek  was  an  expert  dialectician 
when  he  was  using  incantations  for  his  diseases.  As 
late  as  when  the  Puritans  were  enunciating  their  lofty 
principles,  it  was  generally  held  that  the  king's  touch 
would  cure  scrofula.  Governor  Winthrop,  of  colonial 
days,  treated  ^smallpox  and  all  fevers'  by  a  powder 
made  from  Hive  toads  baked  in  an  earthern  pot  in  the 
open  air.' " 

Since  the  beginning  of  this  era  we  find  three  different 
classes  of  mental  healing  practised  and  beheved  in  by 
Christians.  There  are  those  who  use  the  formula  of 
James,  anoint  with  oil  and  pray;  lay  on  hands;  or 
simply  employ  prayer.  A  second  class  believe  in  cer- 
tain persons  as  healers.  Others  have  faith  in  a  visit 
to  certain  relics  and  shrines. 

Most  followers  of  Jesus  believe,  to  some  extent  at 
least,  in  the  efficacy  of  prayer,  but  probably  most  of  us 
expect  the  answer  by  indirect  means  and  employ  a 
physician.  We  are  famiMar  with  this  class,  so  it  is  not 
necessary  to  dwell  longer  upon  it.  We  should  say, 
however,  that  the  first  class,  healing  by  prayer,  should 


MENTAL  HEALING  247 

alone  be  classed  as  divine  healing.  The  other  two 
classes  are  religious,  trusting  in  healers,  saints,  and 
relics,  but  not  directly  in  Deity. 

The  miracles  of  healing  performed  by  Jesus  and  the 
apostles  must  be  classed  under  the  head  of  mental 
healing  regardless  of  our  theory  of  the  further  means 
by  which  they  were  accompUshed,  or  the  power  back 
of  them.  The  most  orthodox  as  well  as  the  most 
heterodox  must  admit  that  in  some  way  through  the 
mind  of  the  sufferer  the  cure  was  performed.  Modem 
psychology  has  but  two  things  to  say  concerning  these 
miracles,  taking  the  accounts  as  we  find  them.  The 
first  is  that  many  cures  have  been  performed  in  recent 
years  through  the  medium  of  suggestion  which  corre- 
spond very  closely  to  some  of  the  miracles.  The  two 
requisites  for  cure  by  suggestion  were  also  found  to  be 
necessary  for  cure  by  miracle,  viz.,  faith  on  the  part  of 
the  patient,  and  suggestion  on  the  part  of  the  healer. 
The  other  thing  which  psychology  has  to  say  is  that  the 
remainder  of  the  miracles  never  have,  and,  so  far  as  we 
are  able  to  judge,  never  will  be  duphcated  by  suggestive 
therapeutics. 

The  influence  of  the  heahng  of  Jesus  and  the  apostles 
has  been  twofold  and  divergent.  In  the  first  place,  it 
has  emphasized  the  desirabihty  of  the  care  of  the  sick, 
an  emphasis  which  Christians  have  recognized  during 
the  last  1800  years.  But  in  the  second  place,  the 
emphasis  laid  on  supernatural  means  for  cure  has  hin- 
dered the  development  of  the  science  of  medicine  more 
than  any  other  one  thing,  or  all  other  causes  combined. 


248  MENTAL  HEALING 

In  common  with  the  general  view  of  the  times,  a 
supernatural  cause  was  ascribed  to  all  diseases,  and 
hence  a  supernatural  cure  was  necessary  for  their 
amelioration.  The  healing  of  diseases  for  the  centuries 
following  the  time  of  Jesus  was  synonymous  with  the 
exorcising  of  demons.  At  first  all  Christians  were  able 
to  cast  out  demons,  and  exercised  the  gift.  They  fully 
recognized,  however,  the  supernatural  power  possessed 
by  the  Jewish  and  Gentile  exorcists,  but  they  claimed 
to  be  in  many  respects  their  superiors.  The  power  and 
reality  of  demonism  and  of  exorcism  have  been  believed 
in  by  the  church  since  that  time. 

From  the  beginning  of  the  Christian  era  to  the  Middle 
Ages,  while  some  progress  was  made  in  the  study  of 
anatomy  and  diagnosis,  there  was  little  advance  in 
therapeutics.  Whatever  the  disease  might  be,  its  cure 
was  largely  the  prerogative  of  religion,  and  any  other 
system  of  therapeutics  was  sacrilege.  Being  thus  in 
the  thraldom  of  religious  superstition  and  misapprehen- 
sion, the  science  of  heahng  was  the  most  backward  of 
all,  and  only  the  work  of  the  last  three  centuries  has 
raised  it  to  the  level  of  a  true  science. 

Perhaps  we  have  no  better  example  of  the  effect  of 
the  belief  in  healers  than  that  presented  by  what  was 
known  as  "king's  touch."  It  exhibits  all  the  phases 
of  this  aspect  of  the  subject,  and  may  be  taken  as  typ- 
ical of  the  cures  performed  by  healers.  It  was  especially 
efficacious  in  epilepsy  and  scrofula,  the  latter  being 
consequently  known  as  "king's  evil." 

There  seems  to  have  been  a  great  development  of 


MENTAL  HEALING  249 

healers  during  the  last  three  centuries.  In  1662,  Valen- 
tine Greatrakes,  the  noted  Irish  soldier  and  healer,  felt 
that  he  had  been  given  divine  healing  power,  and  seemed 
to  be  remarkably  successful  in  touching  for  scrofula, 
epilepsy,  ague,  ulcers,  aches,  and  lameness.  About  the 
same  time  that  Greatrakes  was  stirring  up  such  a 
commotion  in  London,  an  Italian  enthusiast,  named 
Francisco  Bagnone,  was  performing  cures  with  great 
success  in  Italy.  He  had  only  to  touch  with  his 
hands,  or  sometimes  with  a  relic,  to  accomplish  these 
results. 

In  1727,  Gassner,  a  Romanist  priest  of  Swabia, 
thought  that  most  diseases  were  attributable  to  evil 
spirits,  whose  power  could  only  be  destroyed  by  con- 
juration and  prayer.  He  practised  on  his  parishioners 
with  some  success,  and  many  considered  his  cures 
miraculous.  Gassner  shared  eighteenth-century  honours 
with  Frau  Starke  of  Osterode,  who  performed  many 
cures  through  stroking  and  touching  the  patients' 
bodies,  and  by  so-called  charming. 

The  greatest  name  in  mental  healing  in  the  nineteenth 
century  was  that  of  Prince  Hohenlohe,  Roman  Catholic 
Bishop  of  Sardica.  At  the  age  of  twenty-six  he  met  a 
peasant  who  wrought  wonderful  cures,  and  the  prince 
caught  the  enthusiasm.  He  aroused  much  attention 
by  his  cures  in  Bavaria  in  1821,  his  imposing  names  and 
titles,  both  secular  and  religious,  probably  adding  not  a 
little  to  his  influence.  According  to  the  testimony  of 
the  ex-King  of  Bavaria,  who  was  himself  partially  cured 
of  deafness,  the  Prince,  by  a  few  short  prayers  and  the 


250  MENTAL  HEALING 

invocation  of  the  name  of  Jesus,  restored  the  deaf, 
blind,  and  lame,  regardless  of  class,  sex,  or  age. 

Within  the  last  half  century  many  healers  have 
appeared,  the  mention  of  whose  names  is  sufficient  to 
recall  incidents  concerning  them.  Some  stand  out  with 
more  prominence.  Rev.  W.  E.  Boardman,  the  pro- 
prietor of  "Bethshan,"  in  the  north  of  London,  cured 
by  anointing  with  oil  and  praying.  He  claimed  to  have 
cured  cancer,  paralysis,  advanced  consumption,  chronic 
rheumatism,  and  lameness,  and  showed  many  trophies 
in  the  shape  of  canes  and  crutches.  Dr.  Charles  Cullis 
performed  many  cures  in  Boston  and  Old  Orchard. 
He  was  followed  in  the  latter  place  by  Rev.  A.  B.  Simp- 
son, who  still  cures  and  takes  up  collections.  George 
0.  Barnes,  the  so-called  ''Mountain  EvangeUst,"  healed 
some  of  his  converts.  Not  a  few  revivahsts,  however, 
have  incidentally  become  healers.  Wesley  accepted  the 
role  of  exorcist,  Finney  tells  of  healing  an  insane  woman 
at  Antwerp,  N.  Y.,  and  George  Fox  cured  a  lame  arm 
by  command.  Some  women  have  also  been  enrolled 
as  healers.  In  the  last  decade  numerous  healers  like 
Schlatter  and  Dowie  have  acquired  a  meteoric  fame, 
stirred  up  a  newspaper  commotion,  and  sunk  into  ob- 
livion. 

But  miraculous  cures  were  not  ascribed  to  persons 
only.  A  wide-spread  movement  developed  in  the  early 
church,  the  fruit  of  which  was  an  innumerable  number 
of  miracles  wrought  by  streams,  by  pools  of  water,  and 
especially  by  relics.  We  find  recorded  many  authentic 
cures,  real  amid  a  multitude  of  shams,  which  have  been 


MENTAL  HEALING  261 

wrought  at  holy  places,  dedicated  to  various  saints,  and 
at  places  where  reUcs  of  saints  were  supposed  to  rest. 
While  there  was  probably  some  advance  when  the  saints 
of  the  church  usurped  the  place  of  the  zodiacal  constella- 
tions in  their  government  of  the  various  parts  of  the 
human  body,  the  church  prevented  any  further  develop- 
ment. As  early  as  the  latter  part  of  the  fourth  century, 
miraculous  powers  were  ascribed  to  the  images  of  Jesus 
and  the  saints  which  adorned  most  of  the  churches  of 
the  time,  and  tales  of  wonderful  cures  were  related  of 
them.  The  intercessions  of  the  saints  were  invoked, 
and  their  relics  began  to  work  miracles. 

St.  Cyril,  St.  Ambrose,  St.  Augustine,  and  other  great 
fathers  of  the  early  church,  sanctioned  the  belief  that 
gi'eat  efficacy  was  to  be  found  in  the  relics  of  the  saints 
of  their  age.  St.  Augustine  tells  us  ^'besides  many 
other  miracles,  that  Gamaliel  in  a  dream  revealed  to  a 
priest  named  Lacianus  the  place  where  the  bones  of 
St.  Stephen  were  buried;  that  those  bones,  being  thus 
discovered,  were  brought  to  Hippo,  the  diocese  of  which 
St.  Augustine  was  bishop;  that  they  raised  five  persons 
to  life;  and  that,  although  only  a  portion  of  the  miracu- 
lous cures  they  effected  had  been  registered,  the  cer- 
tificates drawn  up  in  two  years  in  the  diocese,  and  by 
orders  of  the  saint,  were  nearly  seventy.  In  the  adjoin- 
ing diocese  of  Calama  they  were  incomparably  more 
numerous." 

''The  first  pilgrims  to  the  Holy  Land  brought  back  to 
Europe  thousands  of  apocryphal  reUcs,  in  the  purchase 
of  which  they  had  expended  all  their  store.    The  greatest 


252  MENTAL  HEALING 

favourite  was  the  wood  of  the  true  cross,  which,  like  the 
oil  of  the  widow,  never  diminished.  .  .  .  Fragments,  pur- 
porting to  have  been  cut  from  it,  were  in  the  eleventh 
and  twelfth  centuries  to  be  found  in  almost  every 
church  in  Europe,  and  would,  if  collected  together  in 
one  place,  have  been  almost  sufficient  to  have  built  a 
cathedral.  .  .  .  Next  in  renown  were  those  precious 
reUcs,  the  tears  of  the  Saviour.  By  whom  and  in  what 
manner  they  were  preserved,  the  pilgrim  did  not  en- 
quire. .  .  .  Tears  of  the  Virgin  Mary,  and  tears  of  St. 
Peter,  were  also  to  be  had,  carefully  enclosed  in  httle 
caskets,  which  the  pious  might  wear  in  their  bosoms. 
After  the  tears,  the  next  most  precious  relics  were  drops 
of  the  blood  of  Jesus  and  the  martyrs,  and  the  milk  of 
the  Virgin  Mary.  Hair  and  toenails  were  also  in  great 
repute,  and  were  sold  at  extravagant  prices.  .  .  .  Many 
a  nail,  cut  from  the  filthy  foot  of  some  unscrupulous 
ecclesiastic,  was  sold  at  a  diamond's  price,  within  six 
months  after  its  severance  from  its  parent  toe,  upon  the 
supposition  that  it  had  once  belonged  to  a  saint  or  an 
apostle.  Peter's  toes  were  uncommonly  prolific,  for 
there  were  nails  enough  in  Europe,  at  the  time  of  the 
council  of  Clermont,  to  have  filled  a  sack,  all  of  which 
were  devoutly  believed  to  have  grown  on  the  sacred 
foot  of  that  great  apostle.  Some  of  them  are  still 
shown  in  the  cathedral  of  Aix-la-Chapelle." 

Nearly  every  country  had  its  long  list  of  saints,  each 
with  his  special  power  over  some  organ  or  disease. 
'^Thus  the  water  in  which  the  single  hair  of  a  saint  had 
been  dipped  was  used  as  a  purgative;  water  in  which 


MENTAL  HEALING  253 

St.  Remy's  ring  had  been  dipped  cured  fevers;  wine  in 
which  the  bones  of  a  saint  had  been  dipped  cured  lunacy; 
oil  from  a  lamp  burning  before  the  tomb  of  St.  Gall 
cured  tumours.  St.  Valentine  cured  epilepsy;  St.  Chris- 
topher, throat  diseases;  St.  Eutropius,  dropsy;  St.  Ovid, 
deafness;  St.  Gervase,  rheumatism;  St.  Apollonia,  tooth- 
ache; St.  Vitus,  St.  Anthony,  and  a  multitude  of  other 
saints,  the  maladies  which  bear  their  names.  Even  as 
late  as  1784  we  find  certain  authorities  in  Bavaria  order- 
ing that  any  one  bitten  by  a  mad  dog  shall  at  once  put 
up  prayers  at  the  shrine  of  St.  Hubert,  and  not  waste 
his  time  in  any  attempts  at  medical  or  surgical  cure. 
In  the  twelfth  century  we  find  a  noted  cure  attempted 
by  causing  the  invalid  to  drink  water  in  which  St. 
Bernard  had  washed  his  hands.  Flowers  which  had 
rested  on  the  tomb  of  a  saint,  when  steeped  in  water 
were  supposed  to  be  especially  efficacious  in  various 
diseases." 

Among  the  ancients,  lunatics  were  brought  to  the 
temples,  and  in  our  era  to  the  churches,  and  subjected 
to  imposing  ceremonies  which  were  believed  to  relieve 
them,  and  which  probably  had  a  favourable  action  on 
them.  Wonderful  cures  took  place  at  the  shrine  of  St. 
Edmund,  and  real  miracles  of  healing  were  wrought 
upon  those  who  drank  out  of  the  saint's  cup.  St. 
Patrick  healed  the  blind,  and  St.  Bernard  healed  the 
blind  and  dumb.  St.  Dunstan  did  mighty  works,  and 
the  mere  index  of  the  miracles  of  Thomas  a  Becket 
requires  thirteen  octavo  pages.  M.  Littre,  in  his  Frag- 
ment de  medecine  retrospective,  describes  seven  miracles 


254  MENTAL  HEALING 

which  took  place  in  France  at  the  end  of  the  thirteenth 
century  at  the  tomb  of  St.  Louis.  Mademoiselle  Perrier 
was  cured  at  Paris  of  a  disease  of  the  eyes  of  long  stand- 
ing, by  merely  kissing  what  was  supposed  to  be  one  of 
the  identical  thorns  that  bound  the  holy  head  of  the 
Son  of  God. 

To  combat  the  rising  science  of  medicine  the  church 
itself  developed  a  ludicrous  system  of  therapeutics.  In 
addition  to  this,  the  body  was  supposed  to  be  made 
imdesirable  for  a  habitation  for  the  demon  of  disease  by 
administering  torture  and  all  manner  of  vile  and  dis- 
gusting doses.  ^'Even  such  serious  matters  as  frac- 
tures, calculi,  and  difficult  parturition,  in  which  modern 
science  has  achieved  some  of  its  greatest  triumphs, 
were  then  dealt  with  by  relics;  and  to  this  hour  the 
exvotos  hanging  at  such  shrines  as  those  of  St.  Gene- 
vieve at  Paris,  of  St.  Anthony  at  Padua,  of  the  Druid 
image  at  Chartres,  of  the  Virgin  at  Einsiedeln  and 
Lourdes,  of  the  fountain  at  La  Salette,  are  survivals  of 
this  same  conception  of  disease  and  its  cure.  So,  too, 
with  a  multitude  of-  sacred  pools,  streams,  and  spots  of 
earth." 

The  two  shrines  at  present  best  known  and  which 
have  proved  most  efficacious  are  those  of  Lourdes  in 
France,  and  St.  Anne  de  Beaupr6  in  the  Province  of 
Quebec.  Over  300,000  visit  the  former  place  every 
year,  and  no  small  proportion  of  them  return  with 
health  restored  as  a  reward  for  their  faith.  In  America, 
thousands  flock  to  the  shrine  of  St.  Anne  annually. 
Here  are  to  be  found  bones,  supposed  to  be  the  wrist 


MENTAL  HEALING  255 

bones  of  the  saint,  and  many  sufferers  are  able  to  testify 
to  their  value  in  the  healing  of  diseases. 

When  therapeutics  as  a  science  began  its  rebellion 
against  the  church,  healing  was  divided  into  two  kinds, 
viz.,  religious  and  non-religious.  We  may  see  the 
gradual  growth  of  this  in  the  teaching  of  certain  men 
of  the  times.  Paracelsus,  who  lived  during  the  first 
half  of  the  sixteenth  century,  wrote  these  words: 
"Whether  the  object  of  your  faith  is  real  or  false,  you 
will  nevertheless  obtain  the  same  effects.  Thus,  if  I 
believe  in  St.  Peter's  statue  as  T  would  have  believed 
in  St.  Peter  himself,  I  will  obtain  the  same  effects  that 
I  would  have  obtained  from  St.  Peter;  but  that  is  super- 
stition. Faith,  however,  produces  miracles,  and  whether 
it  be  true  or  false  faith,  it  will  always  produce  the  same 
wonders." 

Notwithstanding  this  shrewd  observation,  Paracelsus' ' 
remedies  were  little  if  any  better  than  the  reUcs  which 
he  explains.  For  example,  he  cured  wounds  inflicted 
with  a  sharp  weapon  by  the  following  receipt:  "Take  of 
moss  growing  on  the  head  of  a  thief  who  had  been 
hanged  and  left  in  the  open  air;  of  real  mummy;  of 
human  blood,  still  warm  —  of  each,  one  ounce;  of  human 
suet  two  ounces;  of  linseed  oil,  turpentine,  and  Arme- 
nian bole  —  of  each  two  ounces.  Mix  well  in  a  mortar, 
and  keep  the  salve  in  an  oblong,  narrow  urn."  After 
being  dipped  in  the  blood  of  the  wound,  the  weapon  — 
not  the  wound  —  was  anointed  with  this  salve,  and 
then  laid  in  a  cool  place. 

The  divorce  of  non-religious  from  religious  healing 


256  MENTAL  HEALING 

was  a  slow  process.  About  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth 
century  men  began  to  devote  their  attention  to  the 
characteristics  of  the  magnet,  and  one,  Father  Hell,  a 
Jesuit  and  professor  of  astronomy  at  the  University  of 
Vienna,  rendered  himself  famous  by  his  magnetic  cures. 
About  the  year  1771  he  invented  steel  plates  or  trac- 
tors of  a  peculiar  form,  which  he  apphed  to  the  naked 
body  as  a  cure  for  several  diseases.  In  1774  he  com- 
municated his  system  to  Friedrich  Anthony  Mesmer,  the 
man  who,  more  than  any  one  else,  drew  the  attention 
of  the  world  to  mental  healing.  After  varying  fortunes 
animal  magnetism,  or  mesmerism  as  it  came  to  be  called, 
estabhshed  itself  as  a  recognized  part  of  science,  largely 
through  the  influence  and  work  of  James  Braid,  a  Man- 
chester physician,  who  renamed  it  hypnotism. 

There  are  many  forms  of  mental  healing  extant  to-day, 
all  using  suggestion  in  some  way  to  effect  their  cures. 
Mind  curers  and  mental  healers  (in  the  narrower  use  of 
the  term)  employ  direct  suggestions,  while  metaphys- 
ical healers  and  Christian  Scientists  use  more  indirect 
methods.  Any  of  these  forms  which  are  connected 
with  religion  gain  their  adherents  almost  without  excep- 
tion through  the  influence  of  their  mental  healing.  The 
religious  or  philosophical  dose  is  neither  understood  nor 
relished,  but  it  is  blindly  accepted  so  long  as  there  are 
practical  results  in  the  form  of  cures. 

Having  taken  up  a  resume  of  the  history  of  mental 
healing,  it  is  now  necessary  to  examine  the  theory  under- 
lying it.  First,  we  should  notice  one  form  of  mental 
activity  which  has  been  much  emphasized  during  the 


MENTAL  HEALING  257 

last  few  years.  Only  recently  has  its  existence  in  its 
present  form  been  recognized,  and,  as  is  usual  in  such 
cases,  too  much  has  been  attributed  to  it.  It  has  been 
known  by  many  names,  chief  among  which  are  ^^The 
Sub-conscious  Self,"  and  ^'The  Subliminal  Self."  We 
shall  use  the  term,  ^'Subconsciousness."  For  a  plenary 
description  of  this  mental  factor  we  shall  have  to  look 
elsewhere,  but  it  may  be  well  to  say  that  controlling  as 
it  does  the  involuntary  muscles  and  the  internal  organs, 
it  is  the  chief  factor  in  mental  healing. 

Every  person  who  observes  his  experiences  will  easily 
recognize  two  relationships.  The  first  is  the  power  and 
influence  of  the  body  over  the  mind;  the  second  is  the 
power  and  influence  of  the  mind  over  the  body  —  they 
are  reciprocal  in  their  action.  Of  the  first,  which  is  an 
important  fact  in  our  lives,  we  have  nothing  further  to 
say  here;  the  second,  however,  is  the  basis  of  mental 
healing.  Probably  no  other  phenomenon  so  conclu- 
sively demonstrates  the  power  of  the  mind  over  the  body 
as  do  the  four  hundred  or  more  cases  of  stigmatization, 
of  which  we  have  record.  By  allowing  the  mind  to 
dwell  upon  the  sufferings  of  Christ,  marks  corresponding 
to  the  wounds  in  the  feet,  hands,  side,  and  forehead  of 
Christ  appear  on  the  body,  some  of  which  bleed  pro- 
fusely, especially  on  Fridays. 

We  must  further  recognize  that  this  power  of  the 
mind  over  the  body  may  work  in  a  twofold  manner; 
the  body  may  be  injured  by  fear,  anger,  imagined 
disease,  or  thinking  much  about  a  slight  ailment,  but 
in  dealing  with  mental  healing  it  is  the  opposite  side 


258  MENTAL  HEALING 

with  which  we  have  to  do,  viz.,  the  beneficial  effects  of 
mental  states  upon  certain  diseases. 

Pain  is  a  mental  state.  The  bruised  finger  or  the 
aching  tooth  does  not  pain;  the  mind  feels  the  pain, 
which  experience  has  taught  it  to  localize  in  the  different 
parts  of  the  body.  Now,  there  is  no  difference  between 
having  pain  and  thinking  we  have  it,  or  having  no  pain 
and  thinking  we  have  none.  If  we  have  pain  and  can 
think  we  have  none,  we  get  rid  of  it.  Persistent  pain, 
however,  is  difficult  to  think  away.  Or  if  we  can  set 
our  minds  upon  something  different  with  sufficient 
force,  the  pain  is  not  felt.  The  mind  can  readily  attend 
to  only  one  thing  at  a  time,  and  if  filled  with  other 
matters  the  pain  is  excluded. 

Some  people  are  more  suggestible  than  others,  and 
suggestion,  whether  in  normal  or  abnormal  states,  is 
more  effective  with  them.  Suggestion  works  upon  the 
subconsciousness.  In  normal  states  the  suggestion 
must  be  made  indirectly,  so  as  not  to  have  the  distrac- 
tion of  continued  perception.  Apparently,  that  which 
sHps  by  consciousness  unnoticed  is  most  effective  with 
the  subconsciousness.  Trustful  expectation  in  any  one 
direction  acts  powerfully  through  the  subconsciousness, 
because  it  absorbs  the  whole  mind,  and  thus  competi- 
tion is  excluded.  It  is  this  which  acts  in  mental  healing, 
although  some  abnormal  conditions  may  also  arise  to 
assist  the  suggestion. 

That  the  healing  from  relics  was  a  matter  of  faith  on 
the  part  of  the  patient  rather  than  of  power  on  the  part 
of  the  relic  may  be  argued  apart  from  the  modern 


MENTAL  HEALING  259 

psychological  theory.  The  history  of  some  of  the  relics 
unfortunately  proves  them  not  to  be  relics  at  all,  or  at 
least  not  to  be  the  relics  which  the  faithful  suppose 
them  to  be.  Notice  a  few  instances.  In  a  magnificent 
shrine  in  the  cathedral  at  Cologne  are  the  skulls  of  the 
three  kings  or  wise  men  from  the  east,  who  brought 
gifts  to  the  infant  Lord.  They  have  rested  here  since 
the  twelfth  century,  and  have  been  the  source  of  enor- 
mous wealth  and  power  to  the  cathedral  chapter.  Not 
to  be  outdone  by  the  cathedral,  at  the  Church  of  St. 
Gereon,  a  cemetery  has  been  depopulated,  and  the  bones 
thus  procured  have  been  placed  upon  the  walls,  and  are 
known  as  the  relics  of  St.  Gereon  and  his  Theband  of 
Martyrs!  Further  competition  arose  in  the  neighbour- 
ing church  of  St.  Ursula.  Another  cemetery  was  de- 
spoiled, and  the  bones  covering  the  interior  of  the  walls 
are  known  as  the  relics  of  St.  Ursula  and  her  eleven 
hundred  virgin  martyrs.  Anatomists  now  declare  that 
many  of  the  bones  are  those  of  men,  but  this  made  no 
more  difference  in  their  heahng  efficacy  in  the  Middle 
Ages  than  that  the  rehcs  of  St.  Rosalia  at  Palermo  have 
lately  been  declared  by  Professor  Buckland,  the  eminent 
osteologist,  to  be  the  bones  of  a  goat.  Two  different 
investigations  conducted  at  La  Salette  have  shown  the 
modern  miracles  performed  at  that  shrine  to  be  tainted 
with  fraud,  and  the  recent  restoration  of  the  cathedral 
at  Trondhjem  has  revealed  a  tube  in  the  walls,  not 
unlike  the  apparatus  discovered  in  the  Temple  of  Isis 
at  Pompeii.  The  healing  power  of  the  sacred  spring 
was  augmented  by  angelic  voices  which  issued  from 


260  MENTAL  HEALING 

supposedly  solid  walls.  When  Perkins  was  performing 
such  wonderful  cures  with  his  magnetized  steel  tractors, 
Dr.  Haygarth  of  Bath  made  wooden  tractors,  and 
painted  them  to  resemble  steel  ones.  Four  out  of 
five  patients  applying  them  were  healed. 

There  were  fashions  in  cures  as  in  other  things.  At 
one  time  a  certain  relic  would  attract  and  cure,  and 
shortly  afterwards  that  relic  would  be  deserted  and 
inefficacious,  not  because  it  had  lost  its  power,  but 
because  the  people  had  lost  their  faith.  Some  other 
relics  would  then  spring  into  popular  favour,  and  the 
crowds  would  flock  to  them.  We  have  many  modern 
instances  of  this  kind. 

That  this  confident  expectation  of  a  cure  is  the  most 
potent  means  of  bringing  it  about,  doing  that  which  no 
medical  treatment  can  accompUsh,  may  be  affirmed  as 
the  generalized  result  of  experiences  of  the  most  varied 
kind,  extending  through  a  long  series  of  ages.  It  is  this 
factor  which  is  common  to  methods  of  the  most  diverse 
character.  It  is  noticeable  that  any  system  of  treat- 
ment, however  absurd,  that  can  be  puffed  into  public 
notoriety  for  efficacy,  any  individual  who  by  accident 
or  design  obtains  a  reputation  for  a  special  gift  of  heal- 
ing, is  certain  to  attract  a  multitude  of  sufferers  among 
whom  will  be  many  who  are  capable  of  being  really 
benefited  by  a  strong  assurance  of  rehef.  Thus,  the 
practitioner  with  a  great  reputation  has  an  advantage 
over  his  neighbouring  physicians,  not  only  on  account 
of  the  superior  skill  which  he  may  have  acquired,  but 
because  his  reputation  causes  this  confident  expectation, 


MENTAL  HEALING  261 

so  beneficial  in  itself.  We  must  also  include  under  this 
head  the  therapeutic  value  in  most  patent  medicines. 

Notwithstanding  that  we  know  the  large  part  which 
suggestion  plays  in  ordinary  therapeutics,  we  usually 
employ  a  physician,  and  are  willing  to  pay  for  the  sug- 
gestion, being  confident  that  if  it  should  do  less  good, 
it  will  also  do  less  harm  than  many  of  his  drugs.  It  is 
noteworthy  that  many  suggestionists,  \m justly  called 
swindlers,  have  been  more  successful  than  many  scien- 
tific physicians.  If  male  physicians  are  more  successful 
than  their  sisters  in  the  profession,  it  is  not  on  account 
of  more  serious  study,  for  on  an  average  the  women 
stand  higher  in  their  classes.  The  secret  is  in  the 
greater  power  of  suggestion  possessed  by  men. 

Few  healers  will  admit  this  theory  in  regard  to  their 
own  treatment,  but  apply  it  very  freely  to  others.  Mrs. 
Eddy  condemns  hypnotism  and  all  other  forms  of 
mental  healing  as  frauds;  the  pilgrims  of  Lourdes  look 
with  pity  upon  the  charms  of  the  savages;  and  the  relic 
worshippers  scorn  the  suggestion  of  anything  but  mir- 
acle as  the  modus  operandi  of  their  cures.  Dr.  Newton 
denounced  his  successful  pupil.  Dr.  Bryant,  as  an  '^un- 
mitigated fraud,  who  had  no  genuine  healing  power." 

Beside  the  direct  or  indirect  suggestion,  certain  emo- 
tional states  have  great  power.  ' '  There  are  undoubtedly 
serious  lesions  which  yield  to  profound  emotion  and 
vigorous  exertion  born  of  persuasion,  confidence,  or 
excitement.  The  wonderful  power  of  the  mind  over 
the  body  is  known  to  every  observant  student."  Dr. 
Berdoe  calls  to  our  minds  the  fact  that  ^'a  gouty  man, 


262  MENTAL  HEALING 

who  has  long  hobbled  about  on  his  crutch,  finds  his 
legs  and  power  to  run  with  them  if  pursued  by  a  wild 
bull";  and  that  "the  feeblest  invalid,  under  the  influ- 
ence of  delirium  or  other  strong  excitement,  will  astonish 
her  nurse  by  the  strong  accession  of  strength."  For 
example,  a  physician  ordered  a  vapour  bath  for  a  lady 
suffering  from  rheumatism.  A  hose  was  attached  to 
the  teakettle,  which  the  nurse  had  filled  too  full,  and 
when  the  water  started  to  boil,  not  vapour  but  boiling 
water  poured  upon  the  prostrate  woman.  She  sprang 
from  her  bed,  upbraided  the  nurse,  and  never  suffered 
from  rheimiatism  again. 

These  examples  have  been  cited  to  show  that  healing 
wrought  through  faith-cure,  hypnotism,  and  similar 
means  is  not  very  different  from  our  every-day  expe- 
riences. Our  thoughts  tend  to  express  themselves  in 
action;  this  is  the  psychical  basis  of  will.  The  law  of 
mental  healing  is  also  built  upon  this  fact,  and  may  be 
expressed  as  follows:  the  body  tends  to  adjust  itself  so  as 
to  he  in  harmony  with  our  ideas  concerning  it.  However 
the  thought  of  cure  may  come  into  our  minds,  either  by 
external  or  auto-suggestion,  if  it  is  firmly  rooted,  so  as 
to  impress  the  subconsciousness,  that  part  of  the  mind 
which  rules  the  bodily  organs,  a  tendency  towards  cure 
is  at  once  set  up  and  continues  as  long  as  that  thought 
has  the  ascendency. 

Mental  healing  of  any  and  every  kind  is  efficacious 
for  one  class  of  diseases,  viz.,  the  functional  ones. 
Where  the  organ  is  affected,  as  in  a  honeycombed 
kidney  or  a  destroyed  lung,  the  disease  is  called  organic, 


MENTAL  HEALING  263 

and  suggestion,  except  in  incipient  cases  and  in  an 
indirect  way,  can  render  little  aid.  Mrs.  Eddy  declares 
that  she  has  cured  such  diseases  '^as  readily  as  purely 
functional  diseases,"  but  it  is  in  attempting  to  treat 
cases  of  this  kind  that  Christian  Scientists  have  fallen 
into  trouble. 

While  all  forms  of  mental  healing  aim  at  the  same 
result,  the  methods  differ.  Both  hypnotic  operator  and 
Christian  Science  healer  seek  to  alleviate  or  remove 
pain  and  disease  by  impressing  the  mind  of  the  sufferer, 
the  one  by  truthfully  recognizing  the  existence  of  the 
trouble  and  endeavouring  to  bring  about  mental  states 
which  cure  it,  the  other  by  untruthfully  insisting  that 
it  does  not  and  cannot  exist.  Both  are  successful  at 
times.  The  whole  system  of  therapeutics  may  be 
divided  into  two  classes  on  this  basis.  What  we  may 
designate  as  metaphysical  cure  denies  that  either 
matter  or  evil  exists,  and  heals  by  inspiring  the  beUef 
that  the  disease  cannot  assail  the  patient  because  he  is 
pure  spirit;  the  other  class,  faith-ciire,  recognizes  the 
disease,  but  cures  by  faith  in  the  power  of  Divinity, 
persons,  objects,  or  suggestion. 

The  question  of  whether  or  not  there  is  ever  divine 
power  manifested  in  faith-cure  is  an  additional  problem. 
Suffice  it  to  say  at  this  point,  that  divine  manifestation 
would  not  be  inconsistent  with  what  we  know  concern- 
ing the  subconsciousness.  The  subconsciousness  corre- 
sponds to  that  part  of  the  mind  which  the  old  writers 
designated  as  the  "heart,"  and  is  the  religious  clearing- 
house.   While  we  speak  of  cures  coming  through  the 


264  MENTAL  HEALING 

subconsciousness  at  all  times,  whether  the  power  back 
of  it  is  human  or  divine,  is  an  entirely  separate  question. 
A  distinction  already  made  may  be  recalled;  the  cures 
brought  about  by  healers,  shrines,  and  relics  are  not 
classed  under  divine,  but  under  religious  healing;  prayer 
alone  is  the  medium  of  divine  healing. 

''If  the  cure  be  wrought,  what  matters  it  to  the  happy 
invalid  .  .  .  whether  the  cure  is  wrought  by  the  touch 
of  the  Divine  hand,  or  the  overpowering  influence  of  a 
great  idea  upon  the  nervous  system?  If  our  hunger  be 
appeased,  it  matters  Uttle  whether  it  is  by  manna  rained 
down  from  heaven,  or  a  wheaten  loaf  raised  from  the 
harvest  field.  Miraculous  water  from  the  rock  does 
not  quench  the  thirst  better  than  that  which  bubbles 
from  the  village  spring."  And,  we  may  add,  one  is  not 
more  divine  than  the  other.  We  must,  however,  lay 
emphasis  on  the  therapeutic  value  of  prayer,  and  the 
religious  life  generally,  for  this  is  fully  attested  by  all 
competent  observers. 

All  of  us  would  probably  agree  with  what  may  be 
called  the  modern  psychological  view  of  prayer,  that 
there  is  a  subjective  effect  in  the  form  of  a  reaction  on 
the  person  praying.  But  if  we  go  further  and  admit 
that  God  works  directly  upon  the  subconsciousness  of 
man,  we  include  a  far  greater  scope.  If  he  influences 
men  through  the  subconsciousness,  this  influence  is  not 
confined  to  the  person  who  offers  the  prayer,  but  may 
be  extended  to  other  or  all  men  directly.  On  the  other 
hand,  through  the  influence  of  one  person  upon  another 
indirectly,  our  prayers  may  be  answered,  and  if  it  shall 


MENTAL  HEALING  265 

be  scientifically  demonstrated  that  telepathy  is  some- 
thing more  than  a  theory,  and  its  laws  are  miderstood, 
influence  not  only  between  man  and  man,  but  between 
God  and  man,  will  be  better  comprehended  and  come 
more  fully  into  the  class  of  natural  law. 

What  shall  we  say  concerning  the  duty  of  the  twen- 
tieth-century minister  in  regard  to  Mental  HeaHng? 
After  considerable  thought,  and  a  longer  experience 
than  that  furnished  by  the  Emmanuel  Movement,  I 
believe  that  mental  heahng,  as  such,  shall  not  become 
a  regular  part  of  church  work. 

Read  for  yourselves  that  very  interesting  and  most 
valuable  book  written  by  the  directors  of  the  Emmanuel 
Movement,  '^Rehgion  and  Medicine."  In  the  first  place 
you  will  notice  that  the  title  is  a  misnomer;  it  should 
be  "Psycho-therapeutics  and  Rehgion  as  an  Aid." 
Less  than  one  hundred  pages  out  of  more  than  four 
hundred  are  concerned  with  reUgion  at  all.  In  the 
second  place  you  will  see  that  in  order  to  carry  out  the 
work  as  there  suggested  in  its  simplest  form,  after 
finishing  your  seminary  course  this  year,  you  will  need 
four  years  in  a  medical  school,  two  years,  at  least,  in 
post-graduate  study  in  psychology,  and  at  least  one 
year  in  clinical  work.  If  this  is  done,  there  will  be  no 
use  of  the  churches  demanding  young  ministers,  for 
there  will  not  be  any,  i.e.,  any  trained  ones. 

In  the  third  place,  it  is  evident  that  when  one  em- 
barks on  this  work  in  the  church,  this  phase  must 
occupy  his  whole  time.  To  treat  a  patient  psychologi- 
cally is  very  different  from  common  medical  practice. 


266  MENTAL  HEALING 

He  cannot  be  dismissed  with  a  few  pills  at  the  rate  of 
ten  patients  an  hour,  but  at  least  one  or  two  hours  must 
be  devoted  to  each  patient,  so  that  five  or  six  is  the 
limit  in  numbers  for  a  day.  When  some  of  these  must 
be  treated  three  or  four  times  a  week,  about  twelve  to 
twenty  patients  are  all  that  one  person  can  handle 
properly  in  a  week.  You  see  the  point  —  one  could 
not  do  an5rthing  else. 

The  history  of  the  Emmanuel  Movement  reveals  the 
fact  that  it  grew  out  of  the  Tuberculosis  Class  conducted 
by  this  same  church.  If  one  is  to  have  a  mental  healing 
class,  which  from  the  nature  of  the  case  ministers  prin- 
cipally to  nervous  diseases,  there  is  as  much  demand 
on  the  church  for  a  continuation  of  the  Tuberculosis 
Class,  and  the  addition  of  the  Cancer  Class,  the  Bright's 
Disease  Class,  the  Whooping  Cough  Class,  and  so  on 
ad  infinitum. 

To  say  that  the  church  should  be  interested  in  healing 
the  sick  is  true;  it  should  be  interested  in  the  cure  of 
all  diseases,  and  not  only  nervous  diseases.  It  should 
also  be  interested  in  keeping  the  healthy  well.  It  should 
be  interested  in  all  forms  of  education,  in  eliminating 
poverty  and  crime,  in  the  advancement  of  commercial 
and  industrial  affairs,  in  the  crops,  in  good  roads,  —  in 
fact,  the  church  is  waking  up  to  the  reahzation  that 
everj^hing  that  is  of  interest  to  man  is  of  interest  to 
God,  and  everything  which  ministers  to  the  physical, 
intellectual,  or  moral  well-being  of  man  is  of  vital 
interest  to  the  church.  The  church  of  to-day  has 
eliminated  the  distinction  between  sacred  and  secular, 


MENTAL  HEALING  267 

and  recognizes  that  all  things  are  sacred.  The  life 
cannot  be  divided  up  and  a  fraction  dedicated  to  God, 
but  all  must  be  given  to  him;  hence  God  and  his  church 
are  concerned  with  all  human  experience.  That  does 
not  mean,  however,  that  the  church  must  do  all  these 
things  directly.  It  cannot.  Its  work  is  inspirational, 
and  it  delegates  to  its  members  —  all  its  members  — 
certain  factors  of  general  progress,  and  retains  for  its 
direct  work  the  moral  and  religious  development  of 
mankind.  This  is  the  dynamic  of  the  inspiration  which 
incites  to  the  proper  accomplishment  of  the  world's 
work.  The  factor  which  it  retains  as  its  direct  work  is 
so  comprehensive  that  it  touches  all  others. 

The  Emmanuel  Movement,  like  Christian  Science,  will 
not  be  without  its  value,  for  it  will  stimulate  the  physi- 
cians to  take  up  mental  healing,  which  heretofore  they 
have  not  had  the  courage  to  do.  The  physicians  have 
not  been  ignorant  of  the  value  of  mental  healing,  but 
they  have  erroneously  feared  that  it  would  take  the 
place  of  their  medicines.  Further,  it  has  been  practised 
so  much  by  quacks  and  impostors,  and  hypnotism  has 
had  such  a  bad  name,  that  any  physician  who  adver- 
tised to  use  hypnotism  or  suggestive  treatment  of  any 
kind  would  lose  his  reputation  and  his  practice.  It 
needs  a  few  brave  physicians  to  step  forward,  remove 
the  stigma  from  this  branch  of  therapeutics,  and,  placing 
it  upon  a  scientific  basis,  dehver  it  to  the  service  of 
mankind.    The  medical  schools  must  educate  to  this. 

When  the  physicians  do  their  part  the  supplementary 
work  of  the  clergyman  will  not  be  onerous.  The  really 


268  MENTAL  HEALING 

religious  part  of  the  treatment,  the  part  which  must  be 
demanded  of  a  clergyman,  could  readily  be  taught  in 
a  course  which  should  be  provided  by  every  divinity 
school,  and  could  be  furnished  by  him  without  a  too 
serious  tax  on  his  time.  The  inspiration  of  religious 
hope,  the  trust  and  faith  of  prayer,  the  rectification  of 
morals,  and  a  quiet,  peaceful,  reUgious  Hfe,  should  be 
the  result  of  the  minister's  work.  This  would  provide 
the  general  healthful  bodily  tone,  as  well  as  the  mental 
attitude  for  specific  cures,  and  there  is  no  real  physician 
who  would  not  welcome  this  cooperation  in  his  work. 

Of  course,  we  know  that  the  churches  in  America  are 
not  very  different  from  the  church  in  Athens,  in  being 
attracted  by  "some  new  thing."  Churches  will  adopt 
Mental  Healing  because  they  think  it  is  new.  Clergy- 
men will  be  attracted  to  it,  and  it  must  be  admitted 
that  to  the  pastor  who  toils  all  night  and  catches  noth- 
ing, to  see  immediate  results,  and  to  have  numbers 
flocking  to  him,  are  really  stimulating,  even  if  it  is  not 
directly  in  connection  with  that  part  of  the  work  which 
the  church  has  specifically  chosen.  In  some  rare  cases 
there  will  be  both  churches  and  pastors  which  should 
take  this  up  as  a  part  of  the  institutional  church  work. 
In  the  main,  however,  I  beheve  after  the  excitement 
and  novelty  have  evaporated,  and  the  physicians  have 
taken  up  all  the  work  which  legitimately  belongs  to 
them,  the  church  will  decide  that  although  it  is  inter- 
ested and  ready  to  contribute  its  part,  it  is  satisfied  to 
delegate  the  therapeutic  art,  as  such,  to  its  members, 
the  physicians. 


THE  MINISTER  IN  ASSOCIATION  WITH 
INTERNATIONAL  MOVEMENTS 

BY 

Rev.  Frederick  Lynch 

Mr.  Lynch,  a  graduate  of  the  class  of  1897  in  Yale 
Divinity  School,  pastor  of  Pilgrim  Congregational  Church, 
New  York,  has  been  a  great  personal  force  in  the  movement 
for  International  Peace,  and  is  associated  with  all  of  the 
great  ethical  movements  of  the  time. 


THE  MINISTER  IN  ASSOCIATION  WITH  INTER- 
NATIONAL MOVEMENTS 

THE  nineteenth  century  was  one  of  national 
development.  It  was  a  period  of  nations  find- 
ing themselves.  Germany  passed  from  a  group  of 
scattered  and  unrelated  states  into  a  powerful  and 
unified  empire.  Her  industrial  development  has  been 
marvellous.  The  spirit  of  nationality  has  spread 
throughout  the  empire  and  the  Fatherland  stands  a 
great,  compact  organism,  one  in  spirit  and  one  in  pur- 
pose. Japan  is  another  illustration,  one  of  the  most 
significant  of  all,  because  of  the  rapidity  with  which 
the  national  development  has  proceeded.  At  the 
beginning  of  the  last  century  an  unheard  of,  unambi- 
tious, uninfluential,  dormant  nation;  during  the  century 
she  has  become  a  great,  industrial  centre,  awake  to  the 
best  learning  of  the  world,  a  mihtary  power  of  first 
rank,  a  leader  in  the  great  East,  with  a  constitutional 
government  bordering  upon  democracy.  It  is  needless 
to  refer  to  our  land.  From  a  little  handful  of  jealous 
states  bordering  on  the  eastern  ocean  it  has  become 
the  great  republic  of  the  world,  one  and  indivisible. 
It  has  worked  out  the  problem  of  democracy;  at  least 
to  that  point  that  democracy  is  shown  to  be  the  polit- 
ical theory  of  the  future.    It  has  been  developing  its 

271 


272  INTERNATIONAL  MOVEMENTS 

national  resources,  building  railroads,  founding  schools 
and  colleges,  and  solidifying  its  vast  interests.  It 
has  passed  through  great  struggles,  but  it  not  only 
has  saved  itself  but  made  a  union  which  in  many  re- 
spects is  the  model  for  the  world.  It  has,  every  year, 
received  several  thousand  aliens,  coming  from  every 
conceivable  form  of  government  and  no  government, 
of  every  religion,  race,  ideal,  colour,  tongue,  and  has 
succeeded,  we  think,  with  phenomenal  success,  con- 
sidering the  circumstances,  in  moulding  them  over  into 
American  citizens  and  unifying  them  all  into  a  nation 
which,  while  in  composition  the  most  heterogeneous  on 
the  earth,  in  spirit  is  as  homogeneous  as  any.  What 
has  been  true  of  these  nations  has  been  true  of  all.  The 
nineteenth  century  was  one  of  national  development. 

The  twentieth  century,  at  whose  beginning  we  stand, 
is  to  be  one  of  international  development.  What  has 
happened  in  countries,  with  states,  is  to  happen,  at 
least  in  spirit,  in  the  world,  with  nations.  While  we 
might  not  venture  to  say  with  some  prophets  that  the 
end  of  the  twentieth  century  will  witness  a  United  States 
of  the  World,  as  the  end  of  the  nineteenth  century  wit- 
nessed a  perfected  United  States  of  America,  no  one 
who  has  closely  observed  the  movements  gathering 
greatest  headway  at  the  beginning  of  this  century  can 
fail  to  see  that  the  century  is  to  witness  a  somewhat 
similar  unifying  process  among  the  nations  to  that  which 
the  nineteenth  century  witnessea  among  the  states.  As 
the  states  turned  from  state  aggrandizement  regardless 
of  other  states,  to  consider  the  common  welfare  of  the 


INTERNATIONAL  MOVEMENTS  273 

nation,  so  the  nations  of  the  world  are  going  to  abandon 
their  policies  of  isolation  for  one  of  common  purpose 
and  welfare.  As  the  states  abandoned  their  habit  of 
going  to  war  over  their  disputes,  and  established  a 
supreme  court  of  states  at  Washington,  where  now  all 
differences  are  settled  by  arbitration,  so  the  nations  are 
going  less  and  less  to  make  war  upon  each  other,  and 
are  going  to  establish  a  supreme  court  of  nations  at 
which  all  their  disputes  will  be  settled  by  arbitration. 
As  the  states  have  developed  a  large  parliament  or 
congress  of  states  at  Washington,  made  up  of  delegates 
from  all  the  states,  which  makes  laws  for  the  states 
and  debates  questions  affecting  all  the  states,  yet  each 
state  keeps  its  own  congress  or  parhament,  or  assembly, 
so  the  nations  will  develop  a  great  parliament  of  nations, 
which  shall  pass  laws  affecting  all  the  nations  and  shall 
debate  questions  of  interest  to  all  while  each  nation 
retains  its  own  parliament.  Indeed,  as  we  shall  see 
in  a  moment,  this  parliament  of  man,  in  a  sense,  has 
already  been  reahzed  in  the  second  Hague  Conference 
of  1907.  And  just  as  the  states  have  learned  to  hold 
imofficial  conferences  to  consider  the  welfare  of  the 
nation,  as  witness  the  conference  of  all  the  governors 
at  Washington  last  year,  and  just  as  all  state,  religious 
and  philanthropic,  and  scientific,  organizations  hold 
national  conferences,  so  the  officials  of  the  nations  and 
the  national  religious  and  other  organizations  are  going 
more  and  more  to  hold  unofficial,  international  con- 
ferences and  congresses.  And  just  as  in  the  nation  we 
have  all  of  us  come  to  that  point  where  we  do  not  think 


274  INTERNATIONAL  MOVEMENTS 

of  ourselves  as  citizens  of  our  state  so  much  as  citizens 
of  the  United  States,  so  the  twentieth  century  will 
witness  a  growth  of  the  sense  of  international  citizen- 
ship —  a  sense  of  belonging  to  the  great,  closely  knit 
brotherhood  of  aspiring  man,  which  if  not  as  deep- 
rooted  as  our  sense  of  national  citizenship  will  closely 
approximate  to  it.  This  sense  of  world  citizenship  is 
already  not  unknown  among  the  prophets.  And  just 
as  the  states  have  become  big  enough  in  their  sym- 
pathies to  desire  for  all  the  other  states  what  they 
desire  for  themselves  and  to  erect  no  barriers  between 
state  and  state,  and  to  bear  upon  their  hearts  supremely 
the  welfare  of  the  nation,  so  the  twentieth  century  will 
witness  the  nations  foregoing  the  old  selfish  policies  of 
isolation,  and  striving  altogether  for  one  common  wel- 
fare and  achievement,  in  a  federation  which  shall  insure 
justice,  right  understanding,  and  happiness  for  all. 

It  is  the  purpose  of  this  address  to  bring  to  attention 
certain  happenings  of  this  century,  hardly  yet  begim, 
which  show  how  irresistible  and  inevitable  this  move- 
ment towards  international  development  and  federation 
of  the  nations  already  is.  When,  at  the  beginning  of 
the  century,  Mr.  Stead  wrote  his  prophetic  book,  ^'The 
Ajnericanization  of  the  World,"  everybody  praised  the 
brilHancy  of  the  book,  the  daring  prophecy  in  its  pages, 
but  no  one  believed.  Only  nine  years  have  passed, 
and  all  who  are  watching  the  happenings  of  the  world 
not  only  now  feel  its  'probabihty,  but  cannot  help 
noting  that  it  is  to  be  the  real  trend  and  task  of  the 
century.    Everything  is  setting  that  way.     A  calendar 


INTERNATIONAL  MOVEMENTS  275 

of  the  events  of  only  one  year,  the  year  1908,  making 
for  the  federation  and  peace  of  the  world,  has  just 
been  prepared  and  in  it  are  entered  fifty  great  events. 
In  fact  almost  every  great  event  of  1908  was  of  an 
international  nature.  So  significant  were  these  events 
of  just  one  year,  so  many  were  they,  that  we  could 
largely  confine  ourselves  to  a  consideration  of  them, 
and  by  one  year  alone  show  the  remarkable  trend  of 
this  century  to  be  international  unity,  as  the  trend  of 
the  last  century  was  national  unity. 

There  are  four  great  movements  characteristic  of  our 
century,  which,  although  the  century  is  but  just  begun, 
have  already  become  so  common  that  they  are  printed 
almost  without  headhnes  in  the  papers,  and  have  within 
them  such  international  significance  that  not  only  are 
they  signs  of  and  helps  toward  the  federation  of  the 
world,  but  are  already  actual  realizations  of  world 
unity  and  federation.  Thus,  first  of  all,  and  greatest 
of  all,  all  the  world  has  at  last  been  together  in  one  room. 
When  one  reahzes  that  this  century  opens  with  half  the 
world  together  in  one  room,  at  the  first  Hague -Confer- 
ence, and  that  at  the  second  Hague  Conference,  nine 
years  afterwards,  in  1907,  all  the  world  was  together 
for  four  months,  he  almost  gasps  in  his  attempt  to 
keep  pace  with  the  moving  world.  The  last  centiu"y 
would  have  found  a  Hague  Conference  impossible. 
The  international  spirit  was  not  far  enough  advanced. 
The  beginning  of  the  new  century  found  the  world 
ready.  The  First  Conference,  called  just  at  the  dawn 
of  the  century  (May  18,  1899),  while  officially  called 


276  INTERNATIONAL  MOVEMENTS 

by  the  Czar  of  Russia,  was  really  an  inevitable  response 
to  the  demand  of  the  new  spirit  of  world  fraternity  for 
some  concrete  embodiment  and  expression.  Twenty- 
six  nations  were  represented  at  this  First  Conference. 
The  great  outcome  of  the  Conference  was  a  Permanent 
International  Tribunal.  A  building  was  purchased  for 
this  tribunal,  and  is  to  be  used  until  the  splendid  palace 
Mr.  Carnegie  has  presented  is  erected.  There  is  a 
board  of  seventy-six  judges  who  stand  ready  to  try  a 
case  whenever  the  nations  call  upon  them.  America 
had  the  honour  of  sending  the  first  case  to  the  court,  the 
"Pious  Fund"  case,  between  the  United  States  and 
Mexico.  Three  other  cases  have  been  referred  to  it, 
which  cases  would  have  inevitably  resulted  in  war, 
before  its  establishment.  This  also  should  be  remem- 
bered, that  the  founding  of  this  Tribunal  has  led  to  the 
settlement  of  other  difficulties,  not  taken  to  the  Tribunal, 
by  diplomacy  and  arbitration,  rather  than  war.  It  is  be- 
ginning to  set  a  habit.  After  ten  consecutive  cases  have 
gone  successfully  to  the  court  without  a  war,  people 
will  begin  to  think  "court"  naturally  and  not  "war." 
But  so  rapidly  has  the  fraternal  spirit  grown  among 
the  nations,  the  spirit  of  common  welfare,  that  in  1907 
a  Second  Hague  Conference  was  necessary  because  the 
world  was  ready  to  go  further.  And  lo  and  behold, 
here  was  all  the  world  together  at  last,  for  South  America 
came  in  and  there  were  forty-six  nations  present  instead 
of  twenty-six,  all  the  nations  of  the  world  except  three. 
These  were  wrestling  with  internal  exigencies  and  are 
hardly  to  be  called  nations,  for  that  matter.    But  the 


INTERNATIONAL  MOVEMENTS  277 

beginning  of  this  century  sees  all  the  world  together  in 
one  room  for  fom-  months,  talking  over  the  problems 
common  to  them  all  and  trying  to  devise  methods  of 
world  organization  whereby  the  efficiency  and  secm"ity 
and  happiness  of  each  nation  might  be  established  and 
trying  to  take  the  first  step  toward  the  abandonment  of 
war  as  the  means  of  settling  national  disputes.  What 
the  Second  Conference  actually  accomphshed  were  four 
great  things.  First,  it  unanimously  agreed  that  no 
nation  should  hereafter  attack  another  nation  for  the 
collection  of  debts  without  first  putting  the  question 
to  arbitration  for  thirty  days.  This  practically  means 
no  war  here.  For  nations  enter  upon  war  in  the  heat 
of  passion.  Any  question  put  to  arbitration  for  thirty 
days  would  always  be  settled  in  that  way.  When  one 
remembers  that  almost  all  wars  for  territorial  aggran- 
dizement are  urged  on  this  excuse  of  collecting  debts, 
and  about  one  quarter  of  the  wars  of  the  past  have  been 
for  territorial  aggrandizement,  one  can  see  that  this 
Porter  Bill  (for  it  was  introduced  by  one  of  the  United 
States  delegates.  General  Horace  Porter)  removes  about 
one  quarter  or  one  fifth  of  the  wars  of  the  future  out  of 
the  range  of  probability.  It  is  a  very  great  step  in  the 
abolition  of  war.  Secondly,  all  the  nations  voted 
imanimously  in  favour  of  the  establishment  of  a  per- 
manent court,  a  supreme  court  of  the  world.  We 
should  have  had  that  court  had  the  nations  been  able 
to  agree  on  the  manner  of  its  constitution,  that  is,  on 
a  principle  of  representation.  When  it  was  insisted 
upon  by  four  or  five  great  powers,  say  the  United  States, 


278  INTERNATIONAL  MOVEMENTS 

Great  Britain,  Russia,  Germany,  and  France,  that  each 
should  have  one  judge  upon  its  bench,  then  every  one 
of  the  countries  of  South  America  claimed  that  it  was 
equally  a  sovereign  power,  and  entitled  to  representa- 
tion in  the  court.  This  insistence  on  equal  right  made 
hopeless  confusion.  Could  some  method  of  constituting 
the  court  have  been  devised  we  should  have  had  to-day 
a  permanent  supreme  court  of  nations  at  the  Hague. 
When  one  remembers  how  new  the  whole  idea  is  and 
how  stupendous  the  project,  it  is  no  wonder  the  con- 
gress went  no  further.  To  get  it  in  a  century  would  be 
marvellous.  But  it  was  one  of  the  miracles  of  history, 
one  of  those  marvellous  and  sudden  crystallizations  of 
sentiment,  that  the  world  should  have  unanimously 
favoured  the  great  idea.  Committees  of  the  nations  are 
now  at  work  upon  the  solution  of  this  problem  of  con- 
stituting the  court,  and  many  statesmen  and  students 
are  sanguine  enough  to  believe  that  the  Third  Hague 
Conference  will  see  a  permanent  court  of  nations  estab- 
lished forever.  Thirdly,  over  two  thirds  of  the  nations 
voted  in  favour  of  signing  a  general  treaty  of  obligatory 
arbitration,  agreeing  to  refer  all  questions  not  affecting 
vital  honour  to  the  Hague  Tribimal.  This  would  have 
passed  except  for  Germany.  Germany,  because  of  a 
certain  something  she  calls  dignity,  and  because  of  an 
ancient  and  deep-rooted  contempt  of  the  weaker  powers 
of  the  earth,  refused  to  sign  a  treaty  embracing  all 
coimtries.  But  she  was  emphatic  in  letting  it  be  known 
that  she  endorsed  the  principle  of  arbitration  and  stood 
ready  to  sign  treaties  with  any  of  the  great  powers. 


INTERNATIONAL  MOVEMENTS  279 

So,  although  this  general  treaty  was  not  made,  yet,  by 
the  great  size  of  the  approving  vote,  the  Congress  com- 
mitted itself  to  the  principle  of  arbitration,  with  the 
result,  as  we  shall  see  later  on,  that  many  treaties 
began  to  be  signed  in  pairs  upon  the  adjournment  of 
the  Conference.  Fourthly,  several  bills  were  passed 
which  greatly  humanize  any  possible  war,  such  as  these : 
no  unfortified  town  can  be  bombarded,  submarine 
mines  cannot  be  placed  outside  certain  zones  of  action, 
etc.,  etc.  Slight  steps  these  last  things  are  when  viewed 
in  the  light  of  the  consummation  to  be  desired,  but 
great  steps  when  one  sees  the  advance  over  the  past, 
and  that  they  represent  a  spirit  of  humanity  coming  to 
expression  which  cannot  stop  here.  But  greater  almost 
than  these  official  achievements  in  significance  for  the 
future  is  this,  that  at  last  we  have  a  parliament  of  man 
meeting  at  regular  periods.  A  third  congress  is  already 
arranged  for  and  there  is  no  doubt  whatever  but  that 
these  decennial  conferences  will  be  stated  and  perma- 
nent—  all  the  world  in  one  room  every  nine  or  ten 
years,  gradually  tightening  the  international  bonds, 
making  laws  for  the  common  welfare,  devising  methods, 
one  by  one,  for  the  establishment  of  a  supreme  court  of 
nations  which  shall  supplant  the  cruel  and  unjust  arbi- 
trament of  arms.  It  means  the  sense  of  justice  being 
born  among  nations,  for  war  never  decides  who  is  right, 
but  only  who  is  mightiest.  This  desire  that  justice  be 
done  is  almost  surest  sign  of  the  age  of  the  coming  of 
the  nations  under  the  Christian  spirit.  It  would  not 
be  fair  to  our  project  to  leave  this  subject  of  the  Hague 


280  INTERNATIONAL  MOVEMENTS 

conferences  without  calling  attention  to  this  fact,  that 
three  hundred  representatives  of  all  the  nations  could  not 
have  been  in  such  close  official  and  social  companion- 
ship for  a  summer  without  its  breeding  a  feeling  of 
comradeship  and  good-will  and  unity  among  the  nations. 
This  in  itself  was  worth  what  the  Second  Conference 
cost.  There  was  no  war  in  the  earth  while  the  Con- 
ference was  in  session.  As  a  matter  of  fact  it  was  almost 
impossible  that  there  should  be.  The  nations  were 
holding  a  love  feast.  It  is  not  good  courtesy  to  fight 
when  you  are  at  a  party  or  the  host  of  some  one  else. 
These  men  did  not  want  to  fight.  They  were  learning 
to  know  and  like  one  another.  Beautiful  friendships 
were  being  made  between  French  and  German  delegates. 
It  is  ignorance  of  other  nations  that  breeds  contempt 
and  suspicions,  and  most  wars  grow  out  of  these  two 
things.  General  Horace  Porter  finely  summed  up  this 
general  feeling  of  the  good-will  generated  among  the 
delegates,  by  this  story.  Mr.  Spurgeon  noticed  a  poor, 
miserable,  unkempt  fellow  in  the  front  seat  of  his  church 
several  Simdays  in  succession,  and  one  Sunday  he  took 
occasion,  in  the  pity  of  his  nature,  to  speak  to  the 
tramp.  The  poor  fellow,  deeply  touched,  grasped  Mr. 
Spurgeon's  hand  and  said,  with  tears  in  his  voice,  ''Mr. 
Spurgeon,  I  can't  never  tell  you  what  your  preaching 
has  done  for  me.  When  I  came  into  this  church  I 
hated  both  God  and  the  Devil,  and  now,"  he  said,  "I 
love  them  both." 

The  second  group  of  facts  that  show  not  only  that 
this  trend  toward  international  unity  is  going  on,  but 


INTERNATIONAL  MOVEMENTS  281 

is  moving  with  most  remarkable  swiftness,  is  the  sign- 
ing of  arbitration  treaties  between  the  nations.  I 
was  fortunate  enough  to  visit  the  Franco-British  ex- 
hibition in  London  last  summer.  This  remarkable 
exhibition  was  arranged  by  the  French  and  English 
governments  in  celebration  of  the  treaty  signed  between 
them  last  year,  the  entente  cordiale.  One  of  the  most 
conspicuous  features  was  a  great  map  of  the  world 
hanging  on  the  walls,  with  bright,  red  lines  extending 
from  nation  to  nation.  At  first  I  thought  these  lines 
must  be  steamboat  routes  or  cables,  but  I  noticed 
that  they  crossed  land  as  well  as  seas  and  went  from 
capitol  to  capitol.  They  simply  united  those  nations 
between  which  arbitration  treaties  existed,  and  the 
map  was  red  with  them.  Had  this  map  been  drawn  in 
the  middle  of  the  last  century  or  even  later,  say  fifty 
years  ago,  there  would  not  have  been  lines  enough  to 
have  made  the  map  worth  while.  After  only  eight 
years  of  the  twentieth  century  there  were  sixty-three 
of  these  hues.  During  the  first  fifty  years  of  the  last 
century  there  were  only  about  twenty-five  disputes 
settled  by  arbitration  and  diplomacy.  During  the  first 
three  years  of  this  century  there  were  over  sixty.  These 
treaties  are  being  formed  so  rapidly  among  the  nations 
of  the  earth  that  it  is  hard  for  us  who  are  unaccustomed 
to  these  new  things  that  have  come  upon  us  so  suddenly 
to  appreciate  their  significance.  But  we  must  remember 
that  every  one  of  these  treaties  removes  a  certain  num- 
ber of  future  wars  out  of  the  range  of  probability.  And 
where  these  treaties  leave  certain  points  such  as  ques- 


282  INTERNATIONAL  MOVEMENTS 

tions  affecting  vital  honour  or  interference  with  terri- 
torial boundaries  untouched,  the  very  fact  that  there 
exists  an  arbitration  treaty  covering  other  things 
inclines  the  nations  to  think  arbitration  over  these 
greater  things.  And  since  practically  every  case  cov- 
ered by  these  treaties,  which  has  been  settled  by  arbi- 
tration, has  convinced  the  nations  that  it  was  the  more 
excellent  way,  the  first  thought  is  to  try  and  see  if  a 
dispute  not  covered  by  them  could  not  also  be  peace- 
fully adjusted.  Every  treaty,  no  matter  how  hmited, 
turns  the  thought  towards  peaceful  tribunals  and  sets  a 
habit.  So  that  the  one  hundred  and  fifty  treaties 
signed  in  this  century  have  removed,  we  will  venture 
to  say,  fully  fifty  per  cent  of  wars  out  of  the  range  of 
probabihty.  What  a  step  in  eight  years!  Our  own 
government,  under  the  leadership  of  that  great  Secre- 
tary of  State  and  Peacemaker,  Mr.  Root,  has  signed 
during  his  term  of  office  twenty-four  arbitration  treaties. 
Treaties  with  France,  Great  Britain,  Switzerland,  Nor- 
way, Spain,  Portugal,  Japan,  Denmark,  Italy,  Mexico, 
Holland,  Sweden,  China,  and  Brazil,  have  been  signed 
in  1908  alone.  And  not  only  has  Mr.  Root  made  these 
treaties,  but  he  has  been  instrumental  in  generating 
brotherly  and  peaceful  instincts  among  the  Central 
American  and  South  American  states.  The  five  Central 
American  states,  Nicaragua,  Costa  Rica,  Salvador,  Hon- 
duras, and  Guatemala,  signed  a  treaty  agreeing  to  refer 
any  disputes  arising  among  themselves  to  a  court  at 
Guatemala  City,  and  Mr.  Carnegie  has  erected  a  beauti- 
ful   court-house    at    that    place.    The    Pan-American 


INTERNATIONAL  MOVEMENTS  283 

Bureau  of  American  Republics  is  now  being  built  —  a 
beautiful  building  costing  nearly  a  million  dollars,  also 
presented  by  that  prince  of  peacemakers,  Andrew  Car- 
negie. Here  under  the  able  charge  of  Hon.  John  Bar- 
rett is  a  great  clearing-house  and  headquarters  of  the 
American  Republics,  where  they  meet  on  common 
footing  in  a  common  home. 

The  most  perfect  arbitration  treaty  in  existence  is 
the  one  made  between  Chile  and  Argentina.  It  covers 
every  quarrel  that  might  arise.  In  1901  a  dispute  arose 
over  a  boundary  line  high  up  in  the  Andes,  dividing  the 
two  nations.  Preparations  for  war  began  between  these 
two  already  overburdened  nations.  But  the  Roman 
Catholic  bishop  of  Chile,  seeing  the  awful  havoc  and 
devastation  that  must  come  to  both  countries,  and 
knowing  that  the  war  could  not  settle  anjrthing  except 
which  nation  could  drag  out  a  miserable  existence 
longest,  addressed  the  leaders  of  Church  and  State  in 
both  countries  to  this  effect,  "We  all  want  justice, 
neither  one  wants  more  than  his  due.  War  never 
determines  justice,  but  only  might.  The  strongest 
nation  gets  the  prize,  although  the  other  nation  may 
have  all  the  right  on  its  side.  War  is  unchristian.  It 
will  cost  us  infinitely  more  than  the  prize  is  worth  to 
either  nation.  Let  us  put  it  to  arbitration."  They 
listened  to  him.  They  would  not  have  listened  last 
century.  But  the  Hague  Conference  had  met.  Arbi- 
tration was  coming  into  favour.  The  thing  was 
arbitrated  before  impartial  judges.  Both  sides  were 
eminently  satisfied.  Indeed,  they  were  so  well  pleased, 


284  INTERNATIONAL  MOVEMENTS 

so  jubilant,  that  they  immediately  signed  a  treaty 
agreeing  to  submit  every  dispute  to  arbitration.  They 
took  the  war  money,  and  built  schools  and  roads 
and  improved  the  harbours.  (Perhaps  you  do  not 
know  that  the  cost  of  one  battle-ship  would  build  a 
university  as  great  as  Harvard  or  Yale,  and  then  leave 
money  enough  to  plant  a  great  Tuskegee  in  the  South 
and  a  great  Hampton  Institute  in  the  Middle  States. 
But  we  are  such  children  in  fears  that  we  make  provi- 
sions costing  milHons  to  fight  foes  that  do  not  exist 
and  never  will,  while  our  real  foes,  tuberculosis,  typhoid, 
ignorance,  child-labour,  poverty,  unemployment,  we 
leave  untouched.  The  cost  of  the  new  battle-ships  for 
the  United  States  for  this  year  would  wipe  tuberculosis 
out  of  existence.)  Then  Chile  and  Argentina,  as  further 
expression  of  their  joy  at  having  at  last  become  Chris- 
tians, moulded  a  great  statue  of  Christ  out  of  the  cannon 
with  which  they  had  expected  to  blow  each  other's 
heads  off,  and  placed  it  on  the  bomidary  Hne  on  the 
highest  point  of  the  Andes,  where  it  stands  as  a  lasting 
memorial  of  this  Christian  act:  "Christ  of  the  Andes," 
with  this  inscription  on  its  base,  ''Sooner  may  these 
mountains  crumble  into  dust  than  these  two  nations 
break  this  agreement  made  at  the  feet  of  the  Redeemer." 
The  second  best  arbitration  treaty  was  that  signed  in 
Scandinavia  at  the  time  of  the  peaceful  separation  of 
Norway  from  Sweden.  It  agrees  to  submit  all  cases, 
except  those  affecting  vital  honour,  to  arbitration. 
But  it  contains  this  further  proviso,  that  they  shall  not 
go  to  war  over  a  question  of  vital  honour  until  the  ques- 


INTERNATIONAL  MOVEMENTS  285 

tion  of  whether  it  is  a  question  of  vital  honour  shall  have 
been  submitted  to  arbitration. 

There  are  many  other  treaties  that  cover  much  of  the 
same  grounds,  to  which  we  cannot  call  special  attention. 
But  before  passing  to  the  next  group  of  signs  of  the 
growing  brotherhood  of  nations  we  should  remember 
that  many  treaties  and  friendly  compacts  are  being 
drawn  up  in  our  day  which  accomplish  this  same  pur- 
pose of  cementing  the  nations  and  preventing  war. 
Thus  during  1908  these  things  happened:  England  and 
France  signed  a  treaty  of  alliance,  an  entente  cordiale, 
which  pledges  them  to  stand  together  to  preserve  the 
peace  of  Europe.  When  one  remembers  that  there  was 
a  time  when  England  and  France  did  nothing  but  fight 
each  other,  one  can  see  what  advance  the  spirit  of  good- 
will among  the  nations  has  made.  The  two  nations 
celebrated  this  rapprochement  by  a  great  Franco-British 
Exhibition  in  London  last  year.  A  treaty  was  signed 
by  Russia,  Great  Britain,  and  Norway,  making  Norway 
neutral  ground.  A  declaration  was  signed  in  Berlin  by 
Germany,  Denmark,  France,  Great  Britain,  and  Sweden 
neutralizing  all  land  bordering  on  the  North  Sea.  At 
almost  the  same  time  a  declaration  was  signed  in  St. 
Petersburg  by  Russia,  Germany,  Denmark,  and  Sweden 
neutralizing  all  land  bordering  on  the  Baltic  Sea.  An 
agreement  was  signed  by  the  United  States  and  Japan 
insuring  the  peace  of  the  Pacific,  —  simply  a  friendly 
compact  of  the  two  nations  to  set  weaker  nations  free 
from  worry  —  a  thing  that  would  have  been  impossible 
in  the  last  century,  as  would  also  have  been  impossible 


286  INTERNATIONAL  MOVEMENTS 

the  most  Christian  thing  the  United  States  ever  did, 
namely,  to  remit  $14,000,000  indemnity  which  China 
owed,  awaking  in  China  such  gratitude  that  she  sent  a 
special  delegate  of  highest  rank  to  personally  thank  our 
government.  All  these  and  many  more  were  signed  in 
1908.     In  1808  nothing  was  signed. 

The  real  significance  of  this  new  and  friendly  move- 
ment among  the  nations,  the  thing  that  is  leading  to 
these  treaties  and  acts  of  good-will  and  forgiveness  and 
forbearance,  is  this,  that  we  are  at  last  passing  up  into 
that  realm  where  we  are  seeing  that  the  same  Christian 
ethic  is  binding  upon  groups  and  nations  that  controls 
the  relations  of  individuals  to  each  other.  The  trouble 
has  been  that  we  have  been  living  under  two  standards 
of  ethics,  Christian  for  individuals,  pagan  for  com- 
munities. But  there  is  no  such  thing  as  a  double 
standard  of  ethics  in  the  Kmgdom  of  God.  What  is 
right  for  one  man  is  right  for  the  state.  What  is  wrong 
for  a  man  to  do  is  wrong  for  a  corporation  or  a  nation. 
Taking  things  or  land  that  do  not  belong  to  us  is  just 
as  much  stealing  when  done  by  a  nation  as  when  done 
by  a  man.  If  it  is  wrong  for  me  to  take  revenge  it  is 
wrong  for  the  nation  to  take  revenge.  If  it  is  wrong 
for  me  to  settle  my  difficulties  on  the  street  with  my 
fists,  it  is  wrong  for  the  nations  to  settle  their  difficulties 
on  the  seas  with  gunboats.  Nations  are  under  the  same 
law  of  charity  and  forgiveness  under  which  individuals 
live,  in  any  system  of  ethics  that  can  last.  The  law  of 
my  country  toward  Japan  is  the  law  that  governs  me 
in  my  relations  toward  my  brother  in  New  York.     If 


INTERNATIONAL  MOVEMENTS  287 

it  is  wrong  for  you  to  kill  your  brother  on  the  streets 
of  New  Haven  it  is  just  as  wrong  for  a  nation  to  destroy 
a  brother  nation  in  this  beautiful  world.  Both  the 
church  and  nation  has  been  full  of  this  specious  and 
utterly  unchristian  ethic,  this  spurious  and  double 
morality.  It  has  been  largely  responsible  for  the  rotten, 
thievish,  business  methods  of  some  corporations,  for 
the  corruption  in  civic  and  national  life,  for  the  un- 
christian attitude  of  nations.  These  things  we  have 
been  considering  in  this  second  group  are  among  the 
most  hopeful  signs  of  the  arising  in  conscience  of  a 
morality  really  Christian  and  single,  in  which  com- 
munities and  nations  are  accountable  at  the  same  bar 
of  righteousness  as  is  a  man. 

These  two  things  to  which  we  have  referred  as  indi- 
cations of  rapidly  growing  world  unity,  Hague  Con- 
ferences and  arbitration  treaties,  are  official.  They  are 
the  direct  acts  of  nations  and  participated  in  by  govern- 
ments. But  there  are  two  great  sets  of  incidents 
becoming  bewilderingly  frequent,  entirely  unofficial  in 
their  nature,  which  are  nevertheless  almost  as  indicative 
of  coming  international  oneness  and  world  federation 
as  are  the  official  acts.  We  refer  to  international 
congresses  and  international  hospitality.  So  we  come 
to  the  third  group  of  incidents,  pecuHarly  symptomatic 
of  this  century,  and  full  of  promise  for  the  speedy  fed- 
eration of  the  world,  namely,  international,  or  world 
congresses.  Almost  every  society  or  organization  is 
international  in  our  day.  One  has  only  to  think  of  the 
great  religious  organizations,  the  church,    the  Young 


288  INTERNATIONAL  MOVEMENTS 

Men's  Christian  Association,  the  Christian  Endeavour 
Society,  the  Missionary  Societies,  the  scientific  societies, 
the  commercial  organizations,  the  industrial  organiza- 
tions, the  Uterary  and  philological  movements,  the 
political  and  legal  associations,  the  great  fraternities, 
like  the  masons.  Indeed,  every  organization  to  gain 
any  reception  to-day  must  be  universal.  The  note  of 
universahty  is  becoming  dominant  in  everything.  Sec- 
tarianism and  nationality  in  truth  are  passing  away. 
Any  truth  to  be  accepted  must  be  universal  in  its  na- 
ture. People  are  no  longer  interested  in  denomina- 
tional truth.  No  one  longer  wants  Methodist  truth  or 
Baptist  or  Congregational  or  even  American.  A  truth 
to  stir  any  one  must  be  of  significance  to  all.  A  truth  to 
stir  America  must  be  big  enough  for  Germany  and 
Great  Britain.  A  list  of  organizations  that  are  inter- 
national in  their  nature  would  reach  three  hundred.  It 
is  impossible  to  even  conceive  the  rapidity  with  which 
all  this  is  bringing  the  world  together.  Every  one  of 
these  organizations  holds  stated  international  con- 
gresses. Hither  come  men  of  every  nation  absorbed  in 
the  pursuit  of  one  common  aim  or  inspired  to  the 
accomplishment  of  one  universal  reform  or  crusade.  The 
delegates  forget  their  nationality  and  are  known  to  one 
another  only  as  Christians,  or  seekers  for  truth,  or 
reformers,  or  builders  together  of  the  City  of  God  in  the 
earth.  They  learn  to  know  each  other's  finer  and 
better  qualities.  They  find  how  alike  all  men  are  when 
actuated  by  high  purposes.  They  can  see  no  more 
reason  why  Germans  should  kill  Frenchmen  than  why 


INTERNATIONAL  MOVEMENTS  289 

Germans  should  lift  hands  against  Germans.  They  go 
home  with  kindliest  feelings  and  with  a  new  patriotism 
in  their  hearts  which  expresses  itself  not  in  a  blind  and 
exclusive  devotion  to  a  nation  so  much  as  in  a  sense  of 
world  citizenship  and  devotion,  with  all  good  men,  to 
righteousness  and  truth. 

The  nineteenth  century  saw  a  beginning  of  this,  but 
it  is  peculiarly  a  phenomenon  of  this  new  day. 

Thus  the  year  1908  alone  witnessed  fifteen  of  these 
great  international  congresses  and  several  smaller  con- 
gresses of  lesser  numbers  to  which  we  cannot  here  refer. 
In  February  delegates  assembled  from  all  over  South 
America  for  the  express  purpose  of  founding  a  South 
American  Peace  Society,  in  which  every  state  has 
representation.  The  avowed  purpose  is  that  whenever 
rumours  of  war  arise  anywhere  in  that  continent,  this 
society,  representing  all  the  nations,  will  speak  and  act 
together  to  allay  the  frenzy  or  secure  the  dispute  being 
put  to  arbitration.  In  June  the  great  Pan  Anglican 
Congress  was  held  in  London,  followed  by  the  congress 
of  all  the  Bishops  of  the  Episcopal  Church.  Delegates 
from  every  nation  were  together  for  three  weeks,  and 
not  only  consulted  together  how  to  unitedly  further 
Christian  progress,  and  how  to  reform  every  evil  for  all 
the  world,  but  gave  up  special  sessions  full  of  most 
encouraging  speeches  and  resolutions,  to  this  purpose 
of  fostering  world  imity  and  peace.  Then  followed, 
during  the  summer,  in  rapid  succession,  world  con- 
gresses of  the  Congregationalists  at  Edinburgh,  the 
Roman  Catholics  at  London,  and  the  Baptists  in  Berlin, 


290  INTERNATIONAL  MOVEMENTS 

In  all  of  these  congresses  this  question  of  the  new 
brotherhood  of  nations,  the  common  oneness  of  hu- 
manity, and  the  cessation  of  war,  was  again  and  again 
returned  to.  No  utterance  at  the  International  Con- 
gregational Council  awakened  such  hearty  response  and 
such  volume  of  applause  as  one  to  the  effect  that  the 
time  had  gone  by  for  Christians  to  be  fighting  each 
other  when  they  should  all  together  be  fighting  the  evil 
of  the  world.  The  International  Peace  Society  meets 
every  year  with  delegates  from  all  the  five  hundred 
peace  societies  of  the  world,  with  greatly  increased 
numbers  every  year,  and  more  and  more  eminent  men 
attending  its  meetings.  It  met  last  year  in  London 
and  was  banqueted  by  the  government,  and  addressed 
by  the  King,  the  Prime  Minister,  and  the  Chancellor  of 
the  Exchequer.  I  happened  to  serve  on  one  of  the 
committees.  There  were  sixteen  nations  represented 
on  that  committee.  Its  proceedings  were  carried  on 
in  French.  But  as  it  met  morning  after  morning,  no 
one  thought  anything  about  whether  he  was  American 
or  French  or  German.  One  did  not  know  the  nationality 
of  others  unless  he  had  personal  acquaintance  with 
them.  They  were  simply  men,  all  striving,  not  selfishly 
for  national  advantage,  but  for  the  reign  of  justice  and 
good-will  on  the  earth.  This  congress  was  closely  fol- 
lowed by  the  great  Free  Trade  Congress  in  the  same 
city.  After  that  came  the  International  Congress  of  the 
Law  Association  at  Buda  Pesth,  Hungary.  This  con- 
gress which  meets  annually  is  very  significant,  for  it  is 
trying  to  urge  upon  the  nations  a  body  of  international 


INTERNATIONAL  MOVEMENTS  291 

law,  just  as  the  states  have  a  great  body  of  national  law 
in  our  own  country. 

In  September  came  the  Inter-Parliamentary  Union  in 
Berlin.  This  society  is  so  indicative  of  this  international 
movement,  this  progress  toward  real  world  federation, 
that  it  deserves  special  mention.  One  of  the  most 
important  organizations  of  the  world  to-day,  it  grew 
out  of  the  persistent,  undaunted  efforts  of  one  quiet, 
humble,  inconspicuous  man,  WiUiam  Randall  Cremer, 
—  a  lasting  example  of  what  a  man  of  only  common 
abilities  can  do,  who  has  one  purpose,  and  adheres  to 
it  unceasingly  through  a  lifetime.  When  a  young  man 
working  at  his  trade  as  carriage-painter,  he  became 
involved  in  some  labour  troubles.  He  was  instrumental 
in  getting  them  arbitrated.  The  unions  returned  him 
to  Parliament.  The  success  of  arbitration  in  averting 
the  suffering  and  ill-feeling  of  strikes  suggested  to  him 
its  effectiveness  in  averting  wars.  He  procured  the 
signatures  of  a  large  number  of  members  of  Parhament 
recommending  that  Great  Britain  and  the  United  States 
sign  an  arbitration  treaty,  and  of  his  own  initiative 
came  to  the  United  States,  and  with  Mr.  Carnegie's 
assistance  got  audience  with  the  President  and  Con- 
gress. He  was  rather  coldly  received.  The  time  was 
not  ripe.  But  the  failure  of  this  mission  did  not  daunt 
him.  He  knew  the  thing  was  right  and  Christian,  and 
therefore  must  come  to  pass.  He  saw  the  first  flush  of 
light  in  the  sky  and  knew  the  sun  was  soon  to  rise. 
This  is  what  makes  a  prophet,  to  see  the  first  faint  light 
in  the  east  and  to  proclaim  the  sun.    He  invited  the 


292  INTERNATIONAL  MOVEMENTS 

members  of  Parliament  to  come  over  to  Paris  and  hold 
a  meeting  with  the  French  Assembly.  Only  a  handful 
came.  But  they  became  interested.  The  next  year 
was  the  year  of  the  Paris  Exposition.  Many  would  be 
coming  to  Paris.  He  suggested  calling  a  meeting  of  all 
the  members  of  Parliaments  of  the  world  in  Paris  that 
year.  It  was  agreed  upon  with  Httle  enthusiasm.  To  the 
surprise  of  everyone  except  himself  a  hundred  responded. 
The  Inter-Parliamentary  Union  was  formed.  It  is  made 
up  only  of  members  of  national  legislatures  and  now 
numbers  nearly  three  thousand  members  —  an  enor- 
mous growth  for  so  short  a  time.  The  president  is 
Baron  Des  Tournelles  de  Constant  of  France.  It  meets 
every  year  and  •  devotes  its  energies  to  securing  the 
Hague  Court  and  arbitration  treaties,  and  has  very 
powerful  influence  among  the  nations,  since  all  its 
members  are  senators  or  representatives.  The  preser- 
vation of  peace  during  the  recent  Balkan  Crisis  was 
largely  due  to  its  efforts.  The  meeting  last  year  was 
significant  for  two  things :  Prince  von  Bulow,  the  German 
Chancellor,  officially  welcomed  it  in  the  name  of  the 
Kaiser,  and  commended  its  efforts  toward  world  peace 
(one  would  have  as  soon  thought  of  Bismarck  officially 
welcoming  the  Devil  as  such  a  body  of  men),  and  a 
monster  labour  demonstration  was  held  in  Berlin  to 
welcome  the  British  labour  delegates  to  the  Union;  in 
which  several  thousand  German  labourers  expressed 
their  esteem  and  lasting  friendship  to  their  English 
brothers. 

It  is  worth  while  noting  here  that  the  labour  miions 


INTERNATIONAL  MOVEMENTS  293 

are  taking  very  advanced  steps  in  this  movement  for 
international  comradeship.  The  socialists  of  Germany 
and  France  at  their  annual  conference  in  Stuttgart 
two  years  ago  passed  a  resolution  to  this  effect,  that  of 
course  if  their  homes  should  be  invaded  they  would 
protect  them,  but  for  no  other  reason  would  they  bear 
arms  one  against  the  other.  Class  consciousness  is  very 
strong  among  the  socialists,  and  many  economists  are 
feeling  that  their  allegiance  to  the  party  or  cause  is 
stronger  than  their  feehng  of  nationality,  and  their 
propaganda  is  already  making  serious  decimation  in  the 
armies  both  in  Germany  and  France.  Mr.  Harold 
Gorst,  the  eminent  EngUsh  critic,  recently  remarked  in 
New  York,  that  in  Europe  the  general  hope  for  peace 
is  centred  in  the  work  done  by  the  labour  organizations. 
He  said,  ^*We  hope  that  as  soon  as  those  organizations 
achieve  their  efficiency,  they  will  organize  themselves 
into  international  bodies  to  prevent  war."  Why  did 
he  not  say  the  hope  was  in  the  church!  We  have  found 
after  much  conversation  in  Europe,  that  the  general 
feeling  among  the  prophets  and  reformers  is  that  other 
organizations  are  more  Christian  than  the  church. 
Here  is  a  sentence  from  Paul  Sabatier's,  "An  Open 
Letter  to  His  Eminence  Cardinal  Gibbons,"  "High- 
minded  and  at  the  same  time  modest,  reserved  and  also 
resolute,  France  reahzes  that  the  day  has  dawned  for 
mankind  to  take  a  new  step  towards  peace  among  the 
nations.  She  desires  peace  firmly,  not  from  weakness 
or  closeness,  but  because  wars  are  become  to  her  both 
wicked  and  foolish.  .  .  .  Now  in  these  thoughts  that 


294  INTERNATIONAL  MOVEMENTS 

engross  her  attention,  in  these  dreams  she  cannot  shake 
off,  France  had  hoped  to  have  the  church  at  her  side 
to  direct  and  encourage  her.  This  juncture  came  not." 
Fortunately  in  our  own  country  this  is  not  true.  But 
the  time  has  come  for  the  church  all  over  the  world  to 
rise  up  and  say,  "Man  kilHng  and  Christianity  have 
no  part  together  and  it  must  stop  now  and  forever." 
"I  came  not  to  destroy  but  to  save, "  is  the  only  word  of 
any  church  calling  itself  Christian.  There  are  signs 
everywhere  that  the  church  in  our  own  land  is  awaking. 
It  will  discover  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  and  there  will 
be  great  things  doing  in  the  world  —  the  angels  will 
sing  again  over  its  hills  and  fields.  We  must  beware, 
though,  lest  Count  Tolstoi  and  Mr.  Sabatier  and  the 
socialist  find  it  first. 

In  leaving  this  matter  of  International  Congresses 
attention  might  be  called  to  the  International  Tuber- 
culosis Congress  last  September.  Practically  every  great 
nation  was  present  and  there  is  no  finer  illustration  of 
this  world  tendency  to  get  together  to  make  war  against 
the  common  scourges  of  mankind.  Tuberculosis  is  a 
preventable  disease.  Only  three  things  keep  it  with  us, 
selfishness,  ignorance,  and  foolishness.  We  are  greedy 
and  keep  our  money,  or  we  are  ignorant,  not  knowing 
what  it  will  do,  or  we  are  foolish,  and  spend  it  on  battle- 
ships. When  we  grow  Christian  and  wise,  we  will  ban- 
ish it  quickly.  But  it  is  a  sign  of  the  dawning  day, 
these  physicians  from  all  the  world  meeting  together 
not  to  fight  each  other,  but  to  fight  disease.  And 
just  at  this  moment  this  country  is  inviting  all  the 


INTERNATIONAL  MOVEMENTS  295 

nations  of  the  world  to  meet  at  the  Hague  next  sum- 
mer to  confer  on  the  conservation  of  world  resources, 
both  of  life  and  material  things,  and  the  Prison  Associa- 
tion is  asking  Congress  for  an  appropriation  for  a  great 
International  Congress  of  Prison  Reforms  next  year. 

The  fourth  characteristic  of  our  century  making  for 
world  unity  is  perhaps  the  newest  and  most  dramati- 
cally interesting  of  all  that  we  have  mentioned,  the 
practice  of  international  hospitahty.  But  it  bears  with- 
in itself  great  promise  for  future  good  understanding 
among  men.  One  of  the  commonest  causes  of  war  is 
race  prejudice  fostered  by  ignorance  of  other  peoples. 
Suspicions  are  almost  always  based  upon  distance. 
Everything  that  brings  the  nations  more  closely  to- 
gether, that  mixes  the  people  up,  makes  it  less  prob- 
able that  quarrels  will  occur.  No  one  can  ever  tell 
how  much  the  immigration  of  the  European  people 
into  the  United  States  has  done  to  make  war  almost 
impossible  between  this  country  and  the  European 
nations.  Milwaukee  is  Germany,  Minneapolis  is 
Sweden,  East  New  York  is  Italy,  New  England  is 
fast  becoming  France  and  Canada.  The  growth  of 
continental  travel  has  helped  the  nation  toward  the 
cosmopolitan  and  universal  spirit  —  taken  the  pro- 
vincialism out  of  those  who  travel  and  those  who  are 
visited.  The  growing  travel  between  Germany  and 
France  is  beginning  to  tell  on  the  relations  of  the  two 
countries.  Especially  where  the  best  people  travel, 
as  is  apt  to  be  the  case  in  Europe,  this  is  true. 
When  we  get  to  know  our  foreign  brother  well  he  is  no 


296  INTERNATIONAL  MOVEMENTS 

longer  a  foreigner.  He  very  much  resembles  ourselves. 
We  find  that  other  men  of  other  lands  are  struggling 
after  the  same  ideals  we  are  seeking,  and  have  the  same 
hard  problems  of  life  to  solve.  The  real  good  is  common 
to  us  all.  We  are  fast  learning  that  the  ties  which  bind 
us  to  humanity  are  much  stronger  than  those  that 
link  us  to  one  exclusive  land.  Now,  extending  and 
strengthening  all  these  ties  already  made,  deepening 
our  common  appreciation  of  one  another,  has  come  this 
new  force  of  international  hospitality,  the  exchange  of 
visits  of  the  prominent  men  of  one  country  with  those 
of  another,  either  in  an  official  or  simply  representative 
character.  This  exchange  has  been  most  conspicuous 
among  university  professors.  Professor  Fehx  Adler  of 
Columbia  is  now  the  guest  of  the  University  of  Berfin, 
President  Hadley  of  Yale  having  been  guest  last  year. 
Professor  Henry  Van  Dyke  of  Princeton  is  just  finishing 
a  course  of  lectures  on  "The  American  Spirit,"  at  the 
Sorbonne,  Paris.  Last  year  Chancellor  MacCracken  of 
New  York  University  and  President  Butler  of  Columbia 
University  were  guests  of  the  Scandinavian  Univer- 
sities, and  the  visit  attracted  so  much  attention  and 
aroused  such  good  feeling  among  the  Scandinavians 
that  the  great  American-Scandinavian  Society  grew  out 
of  it,  and  this  year  a  Danish  professor  comes  to  Colum- 
bia. This  exchange  of  professors  and  such  visits  of 
teachers,  as  the  Moseley  excursions,  are  now  being  fol- 
lowed by  the  exchange  of  students.  Berlin  University 
has  had  French  students  as  its  guests  last  winter,  as  the 
Sorbonne  had  German  students.    The  Rhodes  scholar- 


INTERNATIONAL  MOVEMENTS  297 

ships  provide  for  American  students  living  in  England 
long  enough  to  understand  England.  Harvard  Uni- 
versity has  invited  five  students  as  guests  for  a  year 
from  Berlin.  The  American-Scandinavian  Society  is 
arranging  to  bring  Scandinavian  students  to  the  Car- 
negie Institute.  We  believe  that  this  exchange  of 
students  is  destined  to  grow  as  rapidly  as  has  the  ex- 
change of  professors.  Every  one  of  these  guests  returns 
home  a  peacemaker  between  two  nations  of  the  world. 
Every  such  event  as  the  recent  visit  of  the  Austrian 
Singing  Society  to  America,  with  its  rousing  welcomes 
everywhere,  breeds  good  fellowship  among  the  peoples. 
How  much  the  visits  of  Admirals  Kuroki  and  Yamamato 
of  Japan,  with  the  accompanying  protestations  of  friend- 
ship and  admiration  between  guests  and  hosts,  with  the 
recent  visit  of  some  Calif ornian  merchants  to  Japan  as 
guests  of  Japanese  merchants,  did  to  smother  the  flames 
of  ill-feeling  which  certain  jingoes  and  bigots  try  to 
fan  into  war  each  year,  can  never  be  estimated.  Prep- 
arations are  now  under  way  in  New  York  by  a  group 
of  peace  workers  to  bring  to  this  country  fifty  of  the 
most  eminent  Japanese  of  all  vocations  and  professions 
to  be  the  guests  of  Americans  for  a  month.  It  will  be 
of  the  greatest  value  in  deepening  good  feelings  between 
the  two  nations.  It  is  too  bad  that  instead  of  sending 
our  fleet  to  Japan  with  its  imcultured  crews,  we  could 
not  have  sent  one  hundred  of  our  best  men,  statesmen, 
clergymen,  college  professors,  editors,  presidents  of 
chambers  of  commerce,  publicists,  the  big,  broad- 
minded,  highest  product  of  our  civilization,  and  shown 


298  INTERNATIONAL  MOVEMENTS 

that  our  nation  made  its  impressions  not  by  brute  power 
and  cannon  but  by  weight  of  its  moral  and  intellectual 
power.  Two  years  ago  Mr.  Carnegie  invited  some 
forty  eminent  men  from  all  nations  of  Europe,  to  be 
his  guests  for  a  month  in  this  country,  to  attend  the 
dedication  of  the  Pittsburg  Trades  Schools  and  the 
great  National  Congress  of  Peace  and  Arbitration  at 
New  York,  and  himself  paid  all  their  travelling  ex- 
penses from  their  leaving  home  to  their  return.  One 
of  these  guests  remarked  to  us  at  the  time,  "This  very 
fact  in  itself  will  do  as  much  to  cement  good  feeling  as 
the  Peace  Congress." 

Three  years  ago  a  group  of  British  editors,  I  think 
at  the  instigation  of  Mr.  Stead,  invited  a  number  of 
German  editors  to  be  their  guests.  It  was  a  happy 
occasion,  but  was  greatly  outdone  when  on  the  following 
year  the  German  editors  invited  forty  British  editors 
to  Germany.  Their  entertainment  was  lavish.  Every 
city  they  visited  outdid  the  last  in  good-will  and  wel- 
come. Even  the  Bavarian  people  turned  the  visit  into 
a  festival  and  danced  and  sang.  The  city  of  Munich 
was  beautifully  decorated  and  the  artists  produced  an 
original  play  in  English  for  the  occasion.  They  were 
received  by  the  Emperor  and  leading  statesmen,  and 
the  hope  was  everywhere  expressed  that  the  cordial 
relations  existing  between  the  nations  might  be  deep- 
ened with  the  years.  The  immediate  result  of  this 
exchange  of  hospitalities  between  German  and  British 
editors  was  a  change  of  the  tone  of  the  press  in  both 
countries.    Previously  it  had  been  full  of  innuendos, 


INTERNATIONAL  MOVEMENTS  299 

malicious  misrepresentations,  quips,  and  quirks,  carica- 
tures, suspicions,  keeping  before  each  country  all  the 
while  distorted  pictures  of  the  other  and  imputing  evil 
motives  week  by  week.  This  disappeared  almost  imme- 
diately and  the  editorials  became  fuller  of  friendly 
spirit  and  appreciation.  Growing  out  of  this  in  the 
spring  of  1908  one  hundred  German  pastors,  both 
Protestant  and  Roman  Catholic,  were  the  guests  of 
British  pastors  for  several  days,  the  visit  ending  with  a 
great  meeting  in  London  in  which  the  pastors  of  both 
lands  deprecated  the  constant  talk  of  hatred  between 
the  two  countries,  and  pledged  each  other  to  do  their 
utmost  in  their  country  to  deepen  and  strengthen  the 
ties  of  friendship  and  unity.  Dr.  Dryander  said  that 
for  him  as  for  John  Wesley,  ^'the  world  was  his  parish," 
not  a  single  land. 

Here  is  a  new  field  of  effort  being  opened  for  philan- 
thropy where  a  world  of  good  can  be  accomplished. 
Some  philanthropists  are  already  seeing  the  opportunity 
—  those  who  have  an  eye  for  seeing  where  money  will 
go  farthest.  Through  the  generosity  of  one  of  these 
men,  Rev.  Walter  Walsh,  of  Dundee,  Scotland,  a  prophet 
and  impassioned  soul,  inspired  by  a  vision  of  the  brother- 
hood of  man,  visited  America  for  two  months.-  He 
spoke  daily  in  churches,  schools,  and  halls.  I  had  the 
pleasure  of  introducing  him  at  many  of  these  lectures 
and  saw  the  new  appreciation  of  what  was  best  and 
truest  in  Great  Britain  mirror  itself  on  the  listening 
faces  as  he  spoke.  This  habit  should  be  increased  at 
once  till  not  only  single  lecturers  should  be  invited  as 


300  INTERNATIONAL  MOVEMENTS 

guests  of  societies,  but  whole  groups  of  every  profession 
and  calling,  including  groups  of  labour  leaders,  should  be 
frequently  invited  to  be  guests  of  their  co-workers  in 
other  lands.  But  better  still,  governments  themselves 
should  undertake  this  hospitality.  Already  there  are 
steps  as  the  result  of  the  new  agitation.  Denmark  is 
voting  $2600  a  year  to  be  applied  for  peace  purposes. 
Last  Jime  Great  Britain  voted  quite  a  sum  for  this 
immediate  purpose  of  international  hospitality,  and 
almost  the  first  use  of  it  was  a  banquet  given  to  the 
International  Peace  Congress  in  July.  Our  own  country 
should  have  been  the  first  to  have  made  such  an  appro- 
priation, but  we  were  too  busy  building  battle-ships  to 
keep  the  peace  to  spare  any  money  for  the  encourage- 
ment of  neighbourliness,  on  the  ground  that  bulldogs 
in  your  front  yard  are  better  for  breeding  peace  with 
your  neighbour  than  friendliness.  But  there  is  every 
reason  to  believe  that  the  growing  numbers  of  those  in 
congress  who  have  faith  in  the  moral  qualities  of  justice 
and  Christian  spirit  toward  all  nations  as  the  best 
safeguard  of  peace  and  national  interests  will  make  it 
easy  to  pass  such  a  resolution.  A  rowdy  or  bully  swag- 
gering around  certain  portions  of  New  York  needs  a 
revolver,  for  he  is  sure  to  be  attacked,  but  Mrs.  Balling- 
ton  Booth  never  carries  one  in  the  same  streets.  It  is 
needless  to  say  that  she  is  never  attacked.  But  this 
habit  of  international  hospitality  is  one  of  the  surest 
signs  of  the  growing  friendliness  among  the  nations. 

There  is  not  time  within  the  hmits  of  this  discussion 
to  even  touch  upon  the  many  happenings  of  our  day 


INTERNATIONAL  MOVEMENTS  301 

making  for  world  friendliness,  the  new  spirit  of  world 
community,  outside  these  four  significant  things  which 
usher  in  the  new  century,  such  as  the  sudden  growth  of 
peace  societies,  there  being  not  one  in  the  world  in  1809 
while  1909  counts  some  five  hundred  and  they  are  now 
forming  at  the  rate  of  one  a  week  all  over  the  world, 
about  fifty  having  been  formed  in  colleges  since  1900; 
such  facts  as  the  growing  frequency  of  peace  congresses 
and  meetings.  In  the  great  city  of  New  York  the  two 
societies  which  draw  the  biggest  and  most  representa- 
tive crowds  to  their  meetings  and  dinners  are  the  Peace 
Society  and  the  Civic  Federation,  which  is  a  peace 
society  in  its  nature,  its  work  being  to  bring  capital  and 
labour  to  solve  their  difficulties  by  arbitration.  No 
congress  in  our  land  has  been  so  largely  attended  as  the 
great  Peace  Congress  in  New  York  in  1907.  The  greatest 
dinner  ever  given  in  New  York  was  given  this  year  by 
the  Peace  Society  to  Secretary  Root,  the  peacemaker. 
The  fact  that  while  in  the  last  century  the  peace 
societies  were  made  up  of  a  few  prophetic  souls  who 
beheved  in  Christianity  and  the  parable  of  the  Good 
Samaritan,  and  dared  believe  even  fifty  years  ago  that 
people  would  some  day  really  accept  Christianity  as  the 
rule  of  fife  instead  of  paganism  and  Nietzschism,  but 
now  we  have  the  sight  of  statesmen  and  governors 
and  editors  and  ministers  and  college  presidents  and 
kings  of  finance  almost  fighting  each  other  at  peace 
gatherings  to  get  the  rostrum  to  plead  for  the  peace  of 
the  world  with  a  fervour  that  would  have  shamed  Elihu 
Burritt  or    William   Dodge;  the    fact   that   organized 


302  INTERNATIONAL  MOVEMENTS 

labour  the  world  over  is  a  unit  against  militarism,  and 
that  boards  of  trade  and  chambers  of  commerce  have, 
to  the  number  of  seventy-five,  since  1900,  passed  reso- 
lutions urging  the  formation  of  the  Hague  Court  and 
arbitration  treaties  —  these  and  a  hundred  other  facts, 
all  strikingly  characteristic  of  this  twentieth  century, 
show  the  change  that  has  come  with  the  new  century. 
Neither  is  there  space  to  study  many  other  move- 
ments of  our  day,  subtler,  deeper,  spiritual  trends  and 
tendencies  that  are  as  significant  for  the  interpretation 
of  the  mood  and  temper  of  the  century  as  these  facts 
we  have  been  studying.  Had  there  been  time  we  might 
have  seen  how  the  social  conscience  is  asserting  itself  in 
our  religious  thought  and  practice;  how  the  humane 
spirit  is  manifesting  itself  in  child-labour  reform,  prison 
reform,  and  industrial  progress;  how  the  spirit  of  con- 
sideration of  the  rights  of  others  is  becoming  an  in- 
sistent principle  in  our  great  cities;  how  the  spirit  of 
neighbourhood  is  growing  among  different  races  almost 
dumped  by  the  tens  of  thousands  into  our  great  cities 
during  the  last  twenty  years,  as  is  so  illuminatingly 
portrayed  in  Jane  Addams'  "Newer  Ideals  of  Peace"; 
how  the  United  States  is  nothing  but  a  great  peace 
society  showing  how  all  the  nations  of  the  earth  can 
dwell  in  imity  as  of  one  blood;  how  all  our  thinking  to- 
day gathers  about  the  principle  of  evolution,  and  evo- 
lution is  only  nature's  way  of  passing  from  brute  to 
spirit;  how  just  as  that  principle  has  indicated  itself  in 
the  relations  of  men  to  each  other,  so  it  must  soon  bring 
forth  a  spiritual  temper  between  nations  who  have 


INTERNATIONAL  MOVEMENTS  303 

used  shard  and  iron;  above  all,  the  growth  of  that  kindly 
spirit  in  all  the  nations  toward  those  of  other  lands,  for 
it  is  the  spirit  and  temper  of  peoples  that  determine 
relationships,  not  fancied  grievances  and  wrongs. 
Nations  who  have  the  will  to  fight  will  fight.  Nations 
that  have  the  mind  of  Christ  toward  all  men  will  find  a 
more  excellent  way.  I  have  tried  to  show  you  the 
signs  of  the  mind  of  Christ  in  our  new  century  making 
for  the  federation  of  the  world.  I  have  tried  to  show 
you  that  the  Christian  minister  should  be  the  leader, 
guide  and  director  of  these  great,  universal  movements 
of  the  social  order,  which  are  simply  the  practical 
human  methods  of  realizing  the  mind  of  Christ. 

There    are    no    limits   to  the    opportunity  of    the 
Christian  ministry  in  the  social  order. 


OF  THE  \ 

UNIVERSITY  jf 


14  DAY  USE 

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